Jan
An Introduction to Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)
In the early days of the internet, search engines ranked websites based upon simple keyword density. Sites that contained higher percentages of a given keyword appeared higher on the search engine rankings than sites that had fewer incidences of that word. The problem with this method, however, was that it allowed website builders to stuff their sites with keywords in order to achieve a high ranking while providing low quality content. Internet users were the victims in this scenario since they would have to search through many links before finding one that provided the content they were looking for.
In order to combat this problem, new algorithms were developed that allowed search engines to search websites for content quality rather than just looking for specific words or phrases. This method of searching, known as latent semantic indexing, allows sites with quality content that use keywords in a more natural way to rank higher than sites that stuff articles with keywords but provide poor quality content. In other words, search engines now evaluate articles by considering the quality of the content rather than simply the incidence of keywords, more as a human would.
For the average website owner, this means you should build your site around a particular theme rather than simply trying to achieve a specific keyword density. You should use not only that specific phrase, but also similar phrases arranged in a natural format. Search engines rank your site by comparing it to other sites on similar topics and analyzing the related words in order to determine how helpful the content on a particular website is likely to be. If you use only one keyword or phrase, the search engine will have a more difficult time determining what the topic of your website is and you’ll be less likely to receive a high search ranking. There are obviously a ton of other factors involved when giving their rankings, but you want as many things going in your favor as possible!
Understanding latent semantic indexing allows you to provide content for your site that seems natural to you while at the same time making sure you can be found on the web. It’s still a good idea to determine a keyword for each article on your site. However, rather than trying to work the keyword in wherever possible, you can write in a natural style while still keeping your overall theme in mind.
Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.Related posts:
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I completely agree with you. Having the right keyword density helps increase the page ranking. Thanks for sharing this post with us.
Excellent explanation of LSI. It seems that by now the search engines have gotten pretty good at determining the “quality” of the content on a webpage. It’s a combination of many factors, including keyword density, but that’s no longer the strongest indicator of relevance to a search term. This favors the users who are performing a search while also benefiting website owners who are actually putting out good, relevant, quality content.
.-= Toronto Movers´s last blog ..Mississauga Movers =-.
No wonder why there’s been so much emphasis on CONTENT for website owners wanting to do better in Google search results. Can you put some article on Google Caffeine? Their algorithms have changed more and I’ve heard that this will also kick out those spammers who’ve either by link building or other methods have managed to get ahead of those who’re rich in content.
But in my opinion, no matter how many times search engines update their algorithm or how much tougher they get, if your website has quality content, I am sure you’ll always get traffic and good serps in search engines.
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Darin Cunningham
It seems that search engines put more effort in looking for natural written articles now. It will also be the future for the internet, that people really make an effort to write good quality articles, and at the same time fit in keyword phrases in a natural way.
LSI is the algorithms of google and it’s very effective to suggest the new possible result in google.
Righly pointed justin , Web 2.0 has brought so many new learning curves you see..
LSI is new geek buzz word and the inn thing.I am also learning about it…
That is nice to definitely find a site where the blogger knows what they are talking about.
LSI 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. It is an application of Correspondence Analysis, a multivariate statistical technique developed by Jean-Paul Benzecri in the early 1970s,
The technique has been shown to capture key relationship information, including causal, goal-oriented, and taxonomic information also.
Hearing about this for the first time. Thanks for the share.
Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz has a great post from way back in 2005 where he talks about Latent Semantic Analysis vs. Theming. It’s a good read that adds additional insight to the article above.
Great explanation and additional back up information on what is a complex subject matter. My personal recommendation is if you write good content then this content will be appreciated by the search engines. What is good content? relevant to your company or business, specific in details and targeted to a group of potential readers. This blog is a good example of this.
.-= Joe@Search Marketing London´s last blog ..PPC is like the Duracell Bunny =-.
LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) technique used by google to determine how work are related to each other in content of a web page. For example, if a web page content related to “Food & Cookies” than words should be Chocolate, biscuit etc
For those who depend heavily on just one keyword, without using any variation and additional words, it’s likely that you may see a drop. On the other hand, with the increased relevancy and weight put on LSI, it can help to cut off SEO black hat methods.
One more factor apart from the latent semantic indexing is influence of social media updates in search results, which is turning out to be a big factor and will just keep on increasing by the day.