LSI is the latest buzzword these days. In its expanded form it is called Latent Semantic Indexing and is being quickly adopted by the top search engines of today. So if you are just starting out with your website and would like to get noticed faster then LSI techniques can help you immensely.
What is LSI?
LSI is basically a technique whereby the focus of sorting data is based on the content instead of just the keywords. Thus while Google and other top search engines used to primarily lay emphasis on keyword density now they are focusing on LSI more. Thus if a user were to type in the search phrase ‘bark’ it could either refer to a dog’s bark or the bark of a tree. While earlier, search results would be based on the number of times the word bark is found in a site, today you will find more relevant results on search engines. Data across the internet is arranged in the form of clusters and these clusters have a unique association with one another. LSI focuses on sorting and gathering all of these data clusters to arrive at more informed and relevant search results.
So how does it work?
Basically, when a user types in a keyword or phrase, if the search engine was using LSI techniques then it would parse the set of keywords to decide what context of results should be produced. Thus taking the same example as before, for the word ‘bark’, the LSI based search engine would parse through the complete sentence or phrase to decide what the user is actually looking for. Let’s say the user had typed in ‘bark mahogany’. Once the second word is parsed the search engine would know that the user wants more information on the bark of the Mahogany tree. Similar technique is applied to all other search terms keyed in by users.
Why LSI is so great?
LSI is a novel concept in the sense that the work of sorting and gathering information is now the search engine’s onus instead of the user’s. What good is a search engine if it only presents data which you have to again parse through yourself. Often, we find that the real information we need may actually be on the second or third pages of a search engine’s results. No longer can websites rely on simply stressing on their keyword density. Instead, the focus is more on the context of the content being searched for by the user.
How does it help us – the users?
You may have noticed by now that when you type in a search phrase into any of the popular search engines, you are getting more relevant results than what you used to get earlier. The good thing about this is that you spend lesser time navigating through web pages to seek specific information. This saves you precious time and energy. In addition, you get all the information you require within the first few links of a search engine result page!
Why websites need to adopt LSI
If you are running a website your SEO experts may have been guiding you on the importance of keyword density. Hence, your strategy till now would have been to procure the most popular keywords according to the niche industry vertical you operate in. There have been numerous software and tools to help website owners parse through the best keywords online. However, all of these tools and software may soon become obsolete what with the whole keyword density subject becoming more and more redundant. Instead, the next big thing, so to speak is actually going to be LSI or Latent Semantic Indexing. It is what all the major search engines are lapping up! So if you want to continue achieving higher SERPs then you need to understand and adopt LSI on your SEO strategy.
How to go about it
There are many tools available these days, using which you can adopt LSI techniques to tweak your content. The main thing is to not repeat the same keyword or keywords over and over again. Instead, you need to make the keywords more natural sounding. In other words, try saying the same keyword in a different way – the way users would interpret it. For example, you could express the keyword ‘soccer’ as ‘football’, ‘rugby’, ‘game’ or any other way users normally would say it. Having such a broad-based approach towards keyword usage in the content is the best way to make use of LSI. This way, search engines would seek you out faster, users would be able to identify and bookmark your site quicker and you will find your site achieving higher SERPs in no time!
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