The Latent Semantic Index (LSI) probably sounds like an antiquated library system or something you’d find tucked away in the corner of a research laboratory. In fact, Latent Semantic anything sounds way more intimidating than it actually is. In reality, LSI keywords are the wave of the future for search engine experts. That’s because search engine optimization (SEO) is becoming less keyword-focused and instead becoming more synonym-focused. Quite simply, these LSI keywords exist to help things like this blog post sound more natural. The end result? The search engines are happier to not only accept your content, but bump it to the top of search results. How will you benefit from using LSI keywords? Say, for example, you own a business that sells a very common product like shoes. Getting ranked by a search engine means standing out among some heavy competition. In lieu of having the money and resources to automatically get your site ranked on top, you can benefit from LSI simply by being more specific with what you have to offer. When used in the proper context (i.e. all-weather shoes, hard-sole dress shoes, walking shoes for seniors), LSI tells search engines your content is relevant to the word “shoes.” As a result, the search engine is likely to increase your page rank because it recognizes your articles and blogs as a source of information for the search term “shoes.” What are the benefits of using LSI keywords. There are several:
- Using LSI keywords will differentiate your text from being labeled spam due to the old practice of keyword stuffing. The reason is because you won’t have to repeat the exact same word multiple times, but instead attach it to words that will yield results in a number of specific queries.
- LSI can use up to as many as six words in a phrase-like form, allowing you to rephrase when you write content while still targeting users who might make a specific search query.
- Remember that search engines check for the presence of LSI keywords while indexing a website. They use the presence of these keywords to help measure the quality of an article or the website being scanned. Incidence of LSI keywords is thus another measuring stick to rate the quality of an article, and better quality means more readers.
Overall, would you say that LSI is now less intimidating after reading this post? Just remember your LSI keywords and you should be well on your way to boosting traffic to your site. And just remember, here at Flagstone Search Marketing we can help with the latest digital trends, including search engine marketing. Contact us to learn more!
photo credit: Rick Payette via photopincc
