Patient (Action Object)

Patient is a semantic role in SRL denoting the object on which an action is performed, or 'what it's done to'. The Patient role carries lower salience than the Agent role. Passive voice reduces semantic clarity in micro-semantics because it places the central entity in the Patient role instead of Agent. Precise Patient identification lowers Cost of Retrieval since search engines can more easily identify the action's target. SEO best practice involves positioning the central entity as Agent rather than Patient in opening paragraphs.

For example, 'The website was optimized'—here the website is the Patient. Better phrasing: 'An SEO specialist optimized the website'—it's clear who (Agent), what action (Predicate), and on what (Patient).

Analysis involves identifying instances where the central entity appears as Patient (passive voice, impersonal constructions)—each such sentence lowers Entity Salience. Rewriting them to active voice where the CE is the Agent improves semantic clarity.