SEO practices and the methods are frequently changing with the advancement in technology and changing paradigm of the digital market. Ever wondered how Google knows you want ‘top-rated shops’, authentic when you look for ‘best vegetarian restaurant near you’?
These related terms which search engines use to enhance your experience and provide your relevant results are done by LSI keywords.
The introduction of LSI is one such significant change which has come up as a powerful method in changing your website’s performance and leveling up.
Unlike the traditional SEO practices of having specific keywords and focusing on them, the digital world now works on semantic relations of words.
But what is LSI, semantic relations and how does it benefit SEO? Stay connected with us to know how LSI keywords can change the dynamics in search results.
What are LSI Keywords?
You might have come across many related phrases when you go for Google search, what are these? Aren’t they related to your search intention? These are Latent Semantic Indexing keywords (LSI keywords).
- LSI keywords are the phrases or group of words which are related to the target or main keyword semantically. These words are not synonymous to the main keyword but are contextually linked.
- Semantic search of search engines refers to understanding the context between words and search query thus providing relevant content and this is done by LSI keywords.
- For example, if your main keyword is ‘digital marketing’, the LSI keywords can include phrases like ‘digital marketing course’, ‘digital marketing agency’, or ‘digital marketing services’.
- These LSI terms help the search engine understand the context of the page and provide users the best fitted content according to the query.
Why Are LSI Keywords Important?
But why do you need LSI keywords? The importance of using LSI keywords lies in the understanding of relevancy of the content to be grasped by search engines.
To reach the target audience it is essential for search engines to understand the context of your content and this is aided by LSI keywords.
1. Semantic understanding of the content
- The search engines are allowed to delve deeper into your content with the help of LSI keywords as it helps them to grasp the relation between phrases and thus recognize related terms.
- For example, in the topic ‘global warming’, the LSI keyword like ‘global warming causes’ incorporated in the content helps search engines to understand the relation and know what your content is about.
2. Acknowledging the intent of the user
- Using LSI keywords helps you to align your content with what the user intends to search by understanding the search query conceptually and incorporating the related phrases.
- For example, when a user searches for ‘healthy body’ they may intend for tips to have a healthy body, which is fulfilled by LSI keywords like ‘tips for healthy body’, ‘fitness exercises’ due to conceptual understanding.
3. To align with the modern algorithm trends
- With changing technologies, search engine algorithms like Google’s RankBrain are designed to understand the context of a content and here LSI keywords help you to align with the changes by having your content conceptually designed.
- Example, the context of the content titled as ‘Healthy skin’ can be understood with LSI keywords included carefully like ‘clear skin diet’, ‘nourished skin exercises’, ‘clear skin home remedies’.
4. Increased reach and ranking
- A topic can be searched variously using different terms and phrases, incorporating LSI keywords helps you to attend to this diverse search thus increasing your visibility, reach to your users and ranking on SERP.
- For around 60% of marketers had increased in the ranks with use of LSI keywords. Example, the topic muscle building can be searched as exercises for strength training. Using the other phrases as LSI keywords increases the reach for diverse search.
How do Semantically Related Keywords Work?
Wait, what does semantically related keywords actually mean? Semantic relations at first place mean connection between two or more words and establishing meaning on the basis of this connection.
When you search ‘Apple orchard’, the meaning is understood by making the connection between both the words as per their meaning.
- Semantically related keywords means the connection between keywords. These phrases are not synonymous but related to the main keyword.
- When you search for a topic, the search engine along with it also looks for related words in the content to provide the user’s what they are looking for.
- For example, if your main keyword is ‘Rose’, the semantically related keywords can be ‘Rosemary oil’, ‘flower’, or ‘rose image’.
- Search engines incorporate the use of LSI which analyze the collections of data and find the patterns in terms appearing together and their co-occurrence.
Why Use LSI Keywords for SEO?
How do LSI keywords help in SEO? The benefits of applying the LSI keywords are numerous and here we give the reasons to leverage LSI keywords for SEO.
1. Improvised content relevancy
- Search engines provide its users with content which are related, relevant and best suited for the query intended by the user and this is done by expanding the scope of content.
- You can make your content related and relevant to the search queries of the users by using LSI keywords and aiding search engines to understand the content theme.
- Example, main keyword: Junk food ; LSI keyword: junk food side effects; original sentence might be: ‘Avoiding junk food is good for our well-being’, updated sentence: ‘Being aware of junk food side effects and avoiding is good for our well-being’.
2. Achieving topical authority
- Isn’t it amazing to have your website rank everytime? Topical authority refers to having search engines understand your website’s content so that it ranks you.
- Topical authority can be induced by LSI keywords in your content to broaden the search visibility and also by increasing the number of content based on the LSI keywords.
- Example, main keyword: digital marketing; LSI keyword: Social media marketing; original subheading: ‘Understanding Digital marketing’, updated subheading: ‘Understanding Digital marketing and Social media marketing’.
3. Providing better user experience
- It is important that you provide your user with a good user experience to increase user engagement and reduce the bounce rate which can be done by LSI keywords.
- According to the data, around 49% of bounce rate is decreased by LSI keywords. It helps you create engaging content relevant to varied search results.
- Example, main keyword: Camping; LSI keywords: packing tips. Original paragraph: ‘Let’s look at some camping tips to make your journey memorable’. Updated paragraph: ‘Let’s look at some camping and packing tips to make your journey memorable’.
4. Optimizing long-tail keywords
- Long-tail keywords have better reach and less competitive edge as they have low search rate but provide good conversion rate and thus using them with LSI is beneficial.
- LSI keywords with long-tail keywords provide niche audiences and drive traffic visible in how Amazon has recorded 57% of its sales due to long-tailed and LSI keywords.
- Example, main keyword: SEO; target keyword: Technical SEO; Original title: ‘SEO Guide For Website’; updated title: ‘SEO Guide For Website: Technical SEO strategies’.
5. Cut down on keywords stuffing
- In traditional methods to rank better the exact keywords were forcefully stuffed into the content thus decreasing the quality which is reduced with LSI keywords.
- LSI keywords help you in optimizing this by being naturally included in the content and avoiding too much of the target keyword thus improving vocabulary and content quality.
- Example, main keyword: Online business; LSI keyword: e-commerce platforms; original keyword stuffed sentence: Online business is growing these days. You can buy any product through online business websites. Online business can be built easily. Update sentence using LSI keyword with no keyword stuffing: ‘Online business built on different e-commerce platforms offering varied products to users’.
How to Identify LSI Keywords?
But how do you recognize the LSI keywords for incorporation? You can go for both the techniques and the tools to identify the LSI keywords. Some of the techniques to adopt are:
- Going for google automated results which comes which you go to search for any topic on google search. The related terms are LSI keywords.
- While scrolling through the Google search you may find the option of related search, this is also where you can find LSI keywords.
- The ‘people also search’ option when going through google search results is also a way to identify the LSI keywords.
For the tools you can go for are:
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Tools
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Features
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SEMrush
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Its keyword tool helps in suggesting the LSI keywords.
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You also get to analyze the competitors content for the related keywords and offer the keyword search volume.
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Moz
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The keyword tool of Moz lets you find LSI keywords suggestions.
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Works on analyzing the keyword difficulty, along with site crawl and site audit features.
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Ubersuggest
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Offers the keyword suggestion and related search for LSI keywords.
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Provides its users with CPC, search volume and competition data along with content ideas based on keyword research.
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4.
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Google keyword Planner
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Google keyword planner is integrated with Google ads which gives you PPC keyword research.
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Give suggestions on the basis of seed keywords along with search volume and competition metric.
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5.
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LSI Graph
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LSI graph is designed to help with LSI keyword research on the basis of seed keywords.
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It also offers a semantic analysis and keyword relevance score to help you make your content relevant.
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How to Implement LSI Keywords?
What if we tell you that incorporating LSI keywords into content, meta tags and other on-page elements is relatively easy? We will tell you in brief about how you can incorporate your identified LSI keywords into your content.
1. LSI keywords in content
- Use the LSI keywords naturally into content without stuffing it and ensure that they fit into the content ensuring the readability. For example, if the target keyword is ‘digital marketing’ use LSI keywords like ‘SEO’, ‘Social media marketing’ in the content.
- Use the keywords in the body, headers and subheaders of the content to point its importance, relevance along with maintaining the coherence. For example, in a topic of SEO, add LSI keyword ‘ On-page SEO’ as a subheading.
- Using the related phrases and some variations of LSI keywords to enrich the content quality and have a broader range of search query and visibility.
2. Implementation in Meta-tags
- Try to incorporate the LSI keywords into the title tag of the web page to make it visible and increase the reach of the web page but be sure it accurately reflects the content intention and is not misleading.
- Use the LSI keywords in the meta description, on one hand making it relevant and informative and on other hand increasing the reach. It also helps in providing additional context to the search engines making it relevant for users.
- While keeping the URL descriptive and user friendly you can try incorporating LSI keywords in the URL of your webpage. For example, if the target keyword is ‘nutritional food’ and LSI keyword is ‘healthy diet’, the URL can be ‘https://www.xyz.com/nutritional-food/healthy-diet/’.
3. In On-page elements
- You can incorporate the LSI keywords in the anchor text when you are linking your web page to other pages be it external or internal. This aids the search engines by indicating that the linked page has content related to both the target and LSI keywords.
- In the image alt text you can use the LSI keywords as the alt text are known to increase accessibility and provide content to crawlers. Updating the Html tags of image aids to provide content of image and improve the accessibility to the visually impaired users.
- Adding LSI keywords in the header tags into the content helps in increasing the readability and structuring of the content. For example, if main keyword is ‘low fat diet’ and LSI keyword is ‘healthy diet’ the header tag can be: <h1>Food for Low Fat and Healthy Diet</h1>.
Benefits of Using LSI Keywords
The use of LSI keywords is not just an advantage but a necessity if you want to improve your website performance. The benefits of using LSI keywords are:
1. Increase in website ranking
Incorporating LSI keywords in your content leads you to better rankings as it broadens the search intent of users by making your website visible and discoverable to them and also to search engines thus giving you a better reach and target audience.
2. Improvement in PPC
Better you rank in the SERP, the more likely it is for users to click on your webpage. Here the way LSI keywords are incorporated helps in improving the click-through rates as it helps in landing your web page on SERP and within the eyes of users.
3. Better user experience
Having engaging, natural and customized content with the help of LSI keywords can help you increase user engagement and spend a long time on your website, broadening your website visibility to the diverse search queries of the users.
4. Incorporation of long-tail keywords
LSI keywords often overlap the long tail keywords providing edge on less competitive keywords and conversion rates. According to statistics engaging with long-tail and LSI versions of keywords gives the businesses rank for around 70% of searches.
5. Boost Online Presence
LSI keywords enhance your content quality and relevance making it easier for users and search engines to access and understand your content. Businesses which use LSI keywords in their content have recorded an average increase of 68% in their organic traffic.
Final Thoughts
LSI keywords have a great advantage when it comes to increasing the visibility and reach of your website.
They are important because they help you acknowledge the intent of the user, align with the modern algorithm trends and understand the context of the content.
Further the need of implementing LSI keywords for SEO is because it gives you improvised content relevance, topical authority, better user experience along with a boost in your online presence.
The use of LSI keywords will help you drive traffic and make your web page discoverable.
If you want your website to rank, have user engagement, reduced bounce rate and LSI keywords integration, contact or book a schedule with us, Ap Web World, the best SEO company in India and our expert team will optimize your website using LSI keywords and other SEO best practices.
FAQs
1. How to choose the best LSI keywords?
Ans: You can choose the best LSI keywords through Google automatic search suggestion, related search, LSI graph, and by mixing the long tail and LSI keywords. You can also go for different keywords tools to find the high-volume keywords.
2. What are the disadvantages of using LSI keywords?
Ans: There are only a few disadvantages of using LSI keywords like using them in huge amounts can make your content as keyword stuffed for search engines and lower your SEO results. Further using too many keywords can make it difficult for the readers to understand.
3. Does LSI keyword stuffing cause the website to rank low?
Ans: Definitely the LSI keyword stuffing or target keyword stuffing can cause your website to rank low because it is considered as an attempt to change the search engine rankings with the use of repetitive phrases, many times google even penalizes the website for it.
4. Should I invest my time on LSI keywords?
Ans: Yes, you should definitely invest your time on LSI keywords as it helps in improving your reach, ranking, visibility, accessibility, and allows the search engines to understand the theme of your content. It can help drive traffic to your website.
5. What are some of the limitations of LSI keywords?
Ans: Some of the limitations of LSI keywords are that it is unable to understand the paradox or irony which covers the keywords, it ignores the order of words and some other parts of speech like propositions, and that it only looks at semantic relation to have one meaning.