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SEO Tutorial Part 3 – What is LSI?

October 22nd, 2008 | 11 Comments

We’ve discussed the importance of targeting your site text to specific keywords and keyphrases – so it’s only natural to assume that you’ll get the best rankings by packing your content full of the same phrase over and over again. But it’s not. While it’s never a good idea to stuff your site full of repetitive keywords, recent Google algorithm changes provide further incentive to use natural-sounding language by taking into account the value of semantically-related words.

If that sounds overly complicated, don’t worry. The term “semantically-related words” is really just a fancy way of saying “synonyms”. In the context of search engine optimization, accounting for semantically-related words means that the search engine robots evaluate the page as a whole, taking related keywords into account when determining what the page is about. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is one specific algorithm that the search engines use to evaluate site content through related keywords.

So what does this mean for you as a site owner? Well, suppose you’ve built up a page that revolves around the keyphrase “how to get six-pack abs”. In order to score high on the search engine rankings, you’ve used this exact phrase repeatedly throughout your text, without using any related phrases, like “how to get a flat tummy” or “how to tone your mid-section”. If a search engine robot using an LSI algorithm visits your site, it won’t be able to get a good feel for what your site is about since you’ve focused on only one keyphrase.

Whether you’re updating old content or working on new text for your sites, it’s important to vary the keywords you use to create more natural-sounding copy. If you’re having trouble thinking up keyword or keyphrase variations, you can use Microsoft Word’s synonym feature (simply right-click on a word and scroll down to “synonyms” to see more options) or consult an online or offline thesaurus. For example, a keyphrase like “SEO tools” could also be written as “SEO products”, “SEO courses” or “Search engine optimization ebooks”, depending on what your content is about.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that no one knows exactly what the search engine algorithms are, and we are dealing with software, not humans, so it’s still a good idea to include several repetitions of your target keyword or keyphrase. I still recommend including your target keyphrase enough times to reach a keyword density of 2-5% (which means you can pretty much write naturally). This will ensure that your site gets ranked for the specific phrase you’re targeting while still compensating for the new changes in semantically-related word algorithms.

Since the search engines will reward you for writing naturally and not forcing keywords and phrases, I suggest you just write naturally. Make sure the keywords and phrases you’re targeting are in your content, but don’t go overboard.

Additional Articles in the SEO Tutorial Series:
SEO Module 1 – SEO Introduction & Keyword Research (Watch Online Video)
-Part 1: What is SEO?
-Part 2: Keyword Research
-Part 3: What is LSI?
-Part 4: What are Long-Tail Keywords?

SEO Module 2 – On-Site Optimization (Watch Online Video)
-Part 5: On-Site vs Off-Site
-Part 6: On-Site Optimization Details
-Part 7: What are Meta Tags?
-Part 8: What is Anchor Text?

SEO Module 3 – Off-Site Optimization (Watch Online Video)
-Part 9: Off-Site Optimization
-Part 10: Directory Submissions
-Part 11: Article Submissions
-Part 12: Press Release Submissions
-Part 13: Forum & Blog Commenting
-Part 14: Social Bookmarking
-SEO Tutorial Conclusion

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11 Responses to “SEO Tutorial Part 3 – What is LSI?”

  1. Jawahar says:

    Hi Lisa,
    Thats really an awesome tutorial. I really like the seo package here, I really appreciate your work in compiling these into videos and text and making it available for free to the readers.

    Wonderful work.

    Regs
    Jawahar

  2. Thats a wonderful tutorials Lisa.. You are simply amazing..I had always searched for websites which can teach me SEO and found yours..

    Simply brilliant..

  3. Web design says:

    It is quite interesting to read this post..Latent Semantic Indexing allows indexing search results based on the pairing of like words within documents.It is awesome to know that Seo allows to provide comprehensive results..really good..

  4. SEO says:

    Thanks Lisa for the tutorial/s.

    I think it would be a great idea to add these to an e-book (if it hasn’t been done so already).

    -Aidan.

    SEOs last blog post..19 Random Link Directories

  5. See, this is what I’m talking about. Another great post, even though it’s part of the tutorial. I like the organization of your blog. Everything is simple to find. Plus, I now know what LSI truly is, and hey, wouldn’t you know that it’s something that I’ve been doing all along! Now, that’s one thing off my list of things to learn. Again, thanks!

    Acai Berry Diets last blog post..Why Acai Berry and Colon Cleanse Diet?

  6. Acai says:

    When I write content on my websites I always try to write naturally and forget about KW density and SEO topics as such. The truth is that quality content and backlinks are the real importance.

  7. Hello,
    I discovered your site through SEO MixTour by Web CEO’s article: “Learn how to get high-quality and diverse links”. Your link is referred to in their newsletter. I am glad to have discovered you site as your SEO techniques are updated and includes social bookmarking as one of its techniques. I started studying SEO in July 2004 and have not updated since then. Your site is a godsend.
    Dennis

  8. Noah says:

    Definitely, definitely don’t go overboard and keyword stuff, but yea, great article. Its also pretty important to have related keywords in your inbound links in addition to throughout your content.

  9. toolbar says:

    hadn’t heard or LSI before reading this. awesome seo guide.

  10. vijay says:

    Your Seo tutorials are very good to achieve good ranking in search engines.

  11. Mariam says:

    Hi,
    Thanks for sharing information about LSI. I haven’t heard before about it. Thanks for providing this guide. Keep up the good work.

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