Do You Use LSI Keywords for SEO

Do you know what are LSI keywords or Latent semantic keywords? Or, how to find LSI keywords? If not, then you might not be giving your article a strong SEO boost.

LSI or Latent semantic Indexing keywords are SEO terms for related, similar words or synonyms for any particular keyword. LSI is a part of the Google algorithm.

It is a very crucial SEO tactic to implement LSI keywords in each of your blog posts.

In this article, I will discuss the concept, how to find & how to use LSI keywords.

What are LSI Keywords?

Latent semantic indexing (LSI) is an indexing and retrieval method that uses a mathematical technique called singular value decomposition (SVD) to identify patterns in the relationships between the terms and concepts contained in an unstructured collection of text.

In simple words, these are related keywords to the main keyword you want to use. Search engines like Google use it to decide the relationship between different creations on any content available on the web.

Before LSI keywords became part of SEO, keyword density optimization was the major determinant of ranking an article. So, people used to keyword stuff the article with the same word to get benefits. Search engines used to match the exact search query to get results but they were not accurate enough.

Now, with SVD or singular value decomposition, search engines examine the meaning of the search term & return with related or synonymous words linked to the search query. Search Engine Bots also look for LSI or related keywords in the whole article.

We should also maintain a minimum keyword density for the target keyword. Ideally, it is recommended to keep the density to 1% – 2% and for longer articles it may be a little more.

Advantages & SEO Benefits of LSI Keywords

1. To make your article more keyword rich, you can add more long tail & LSI keywords in the post. LSI & long tail keywords make the article more natural & increase readability.

2. Keyword density optimization can be done with the help of LSI keywords. Also at the same time, you can optimize the article for multiple search terms.

3. If the article is stuffed with the same keyword over and over again, there is a chance that your post may get penalized. To fix this problem you can use various LSI keywords in your article which also will help you to rank for multiple queries.

4. Search engines like Google are in the process to improve their algorithm. If someone types any search query, it looks for the most relevant content for that particular search term. It uses LSI keywords to find whether a post or a web page is relevant or not. To say it in a simple manner, using the latent semantic keywords increases the ranking in different search engines.

LSI Keyword Examples

Example 1

If a person is searching for the term “SEO Beginners”, the possible results will be as below.

SEO beginners tutorial, SEO Beginners guide PDF, SEO Link building for beginners, SEO Tips for beginners are the related secondary keywords for your primary keyword “SEO Beginners”.

This is a generic keyword which is actually very tough to rank with, but there are strong chances that people will search for the above related & long tail keywords. So it will be easy for you to rank better for those keywords.

Example 2

Another Example of LSI Keywords is when you put them in your blog post, it helps the search engine to understand the exact meaning.

For instance, If you type only Penguin in Google, it will give you results including the Penguin Update of Google as well as the bird Penguin.

In this scenario, if you put search terms like update, Google, algorithm; then it will give you the results only about Google Penguin Update. It uses Latent semantic indexing keywords like update, Google, algorithm with the keyword Penguin.

How to Find LSI Keywords?

There are multiple ways to find latent semantic keywords for any targeted keyword.

(a). Google Keyword Planner

Google keyword planner is one of the best free tool available for keyword search. Other than finding the average monthly searches for any keyword, we can also use this to find LSI keywords.

If you search for any keyword in Google keyword planner, it shows Keyword Ideas along with Keyword Group. In Keyword Ideas, it shows different related words or latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords.

(b). Google Search for Keyword Suggestion

Google search is another easy way to find related keywords.

In the first screenshot, you can see that for the keyword SEO Beginners it gave a quick list of words or phrases that match my search term. You can use these LSI words in your post.

Just type your main keyword in Google search and note down all the words displayed. You can also change one or two words in your targeted word to get more keyword ideas. So you will have a list of related keywords to use in your blog post.

(c). Search Engine Results for Related Keywords

If you press the enter button after typing any keyword, you can see some related words or phrases at the end of the first page. These are also examples of LSI keywords.

(d). Using a Plugin to Find LSI Keywords

If you want to reduce the manual effort, there are few plugins available to automatically fetch LSI keywords. Few of them are EasyWpSEO, SEOPressor etc.

Personally, I am using Easy WP SEO plugin. It will display multiple results for any particular keyword. It is a premium plugin which helps to find the LSI keywords. You can see in the below screenshot that for the term blogging tips, Easy WP SEO has returned 10 related & long tail keywords.

How to Use LSI Keywords for SEO

Filling your article with the same keyword, again and again, will make your post look like spam. Nowadays, keyword stuffing can actually invite a penalty and get you in trouble. So try to practice few of these SEO exercises for better results.

1. Use your targeted keyword in Heading, Title tags, Meta description, Permalink, Starting & Ending paragraph, Anchor texts while interlinking to a particular post or page.
2. Put related terms in the body of the article but try to place the keywords in a natural way to keep the flow of your article.
3. Try to keep the keyword density to 1% – 2% for your focus keyword and put other related & long tail keywords.
4. Try to build few quality backlinks on a regular basis instead of building thousands of links overnight. This will help you to achieve good domain authority.

Summary

Use LSI & Long Tail keywords for ranking better for any particular keyword. This will make your article look more natural both for the readers & the search engines. Share your experience below on how much importance you are giving to LSI keywords.