Content To The Power Of Linked Data: Wordlift’s Way

Innovations do happen at the intersections. One such innovation happened at the intersection between SEO, content writing and the Semantic Web. It is called WordLift . A tool for Semantic Web weavers, as I called it back in 2017 when I first tried it, having followed Andrea Volpini for some time on Google Plus (yes :-)). Since then Wordlift made big steps in the world of content, Linked Data and currently is trailblazing the AI-driven SEO path.

Technically, WordLift is a plugin for WordPress that allows content to be described with Linked Data. The documentation they keep is very detailed, take for example the Knowledge Graph entry. Yet I want to keep these presentations of knowledge graphs powering and powered by content as less technical as possible so that we can focus on the ride not the vehicle.

Experientially, what Wordlift does with content and our journey through it is about enacting interconnectedness at the level of things. Linking concepts both inline and at the level of the webpage metadata, the connected content allows the user to follow their interest browsing topics being found across the content.

In my book Being Dialogic, where the idea about presenting knowledge graphs that sere content experiecens came from, I introduced Tim. Long story short (in my book I wrote an Ode for Tim :), still believing that we are intertextual animals) Tim is a person, a sense-making creature, seeking to know more or do more, using the Web.

So here too, I will invite Tim to help us get in the shoes of a person experiening knowledge graph powered content.

How Exactly Linked Data Can Power User Experiences?

Case in point, not long time ago Tim met a friend in the elevator. Seeing his glasses, instead of doing multiple searches and sifting through links and content, Tim took a photo of the glasses. He then searched for the image on Google. And there you go, Tim within few clicks Tim found what he was looking for and even more.

How? The organization selling the glasses have had their product content described with Linked Data. Tim was able to find the exact model and retrieve all the relevant product information about it within a single click. Not only he found the model but he also got information about availability, price, features and even similiar models. In a Semantic Web speak (ref. The Semantic Web Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler, Ora Lassila – thanks Ora Lassila for uploading a copy of the article on his website), Tim’s agent “promptly” retrieved information from the Web of Data (cf. Web of Data – thanks Aidan Hogan for making the entire book publicly available!), and got product details, store availability information, and probably information from other databases, to present a kaleidoscope with linked content.

I want to keep these presentations brief and I won’t go any deeper, but will sum up how I see Linked Data being our inevitable next step towards better knowledge experiences for our stakeholders on the Web through creating truly connected content (yes, Mike Atherton and Carie Hane’s book).

Linked Data With Benefits

From the perspective of digital marketing communications – that is the public communication we now mainly put on the Web, content built with linked data brings efficiency and coherence on several layers:

At the layer of authoring

As an author I can write my text and then be suggested entites either from the vocabulary of entites I curate and care for, or from the wider web of data. When I turn a word into an entity, I get the benefit of having links towards external or internal resources automatically.

At the level of SEO

At the level of SEO Wordlift have made giant leaps into the world of article created with the help of machine-readable and generated content. Just a small example of that is the ability to creat sophisticated prompts that automatically run an analysis over content (extracting and analyzing entities) and to draft an outline of a blog post:

At the level of shared vocabulary

I am big on co-orientation (cf. Co-Orientation Theory till I create my own Wordlift entity on the topic, pun intented). Having a vocabulary of entites that are shared across the organization and more importantly on its website, that is across the public communication artifacts, is what adds to coherent brand voice and content strategy.

Wordlift’s so called Vocabulary let’s you keep these entites. I personally called my vocabulary Cabinet of Curiosities and use it to pubslish my first-party data view of the world and the things I write about.

Linked Data With Challenges

I haven’t talked about the challenges of content powered by a knowledge graph in Being Dialogic. Yet there are such and the more we talk about them the smarter our solutions will grow. I say our solutions because for me the point is not whether Wordlift or Ontotext Knowledge Graph (cf. my share Living the dreamt of (Knowledge Graph with Connected Content) will be the solution, the point is to bring mindsets, disciplines and practitioners together and slowly and steadily get to the point where the talk about publishing content for the Web of Data is walked with tools that don’t get in the way of creativity and user experience.

The challenge I see here is the overlapping levels of aboutness (excuse my visual made with Mac editor :)).

Screenshot of a WordPress post and its paratextual elements: tags, categories, Wordlift annotations tags. 

As you can see in the image I have my legacy tags from WordPress, which I still use, my categories in WordPress – I use them also as hubs and pillars of four themes thorughout my work and writing journey, and the cloud of the three entities i chose for my article.

The challenge i how to align those levels of aboutness. In the first place technically and then, not less important, in terms of workflow and editorial (metadata) guidelines.

This I see as a little step to go over for creating content with Linked Data. As Bob Kasenchak resently wrote (ref. On Limitations of Systems Consuming Taxonomies) there’s the reality of the frustrating inability of content systems to consume vocabularies (let alone knowledge graph objects 🙂

But this will change, I hope! By then, let’s focus on the very bright side of the ability to do semantic annottion over WordPress content.

Waking Up To The Fact That We Write And Market On The Web of Data

Bridging processes and mindsets about content, SEO and digital marketing communication on the Web is such an interesting and exciting plane to explore. And I am happy to see Wordlift working relentlessly towards a more connected world and content.

Having a tool that helps you not only do content but also publish Linked Data, allows us to bring content creation on a level where we care about knowledge, not about single pieces to just produce and fill our editorial calendar with.

Knowing that I enrich a knowledge graph and weave my thread in the Web of Data, as a content creator, I have the opportunity and the responsibility to bring my practices to the next level – beyond the 10 best [insert name of the things you sell, e.g. suitcases], into a world where things are looked at as a graph. And ultimately as a graph part of the Giant Global Graph (yes, me and my everlasting love for intertwingularity based on intertextuality 🙂 cf. Giant Global Graph)

A semantic network of business entities and logic meeting the semantic network of a person looking to solve a problem and be supported on their knowledge journey.

That I call content to the power of Linked Data.

❤️

Thanks for reading this story, which is an unplugged version of the Knowledge Graphs stories I present in my book Being Dialogic. If you enjoyed it, check my book, and also the newsletter I keep on LinkedIn called Knowledge Graphs ❤️ Content