We have come past the time when marketers focused on a single keyword in order to obtain better rankings. Nowadays, the ultimate key is to create high-quality content with context. It is believed that around 15 percent of daily searches on Google are related to new terms that users have never searched before. As trillions of searches are conducted every year, this adds up to the list of new queries.
As searchers online keep looking for new ways to search for common issues, this is the primary reason why LSI keywords have become a major part of Google’s ranking factors. If you look at it from an SEO point of view, the use of LSI keywords offers a wide range of benefits. When you use them in your on page SEO strategies, like content creation, you can boost the overall contextuality and improve the search visibility.
What are LSI Keywords?
Google continues to talk about the importance of LSI keywords since 2015.
LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing. This serves as a computer program that is designed to observe a wide range of synonyms based on context. It is a practice that makes use of mathematical techniques to come across specific relationships between concepts and words within a content piece.
With respect to SEO, LSI keywords are specific search terms linked to the main keyword that you wish to target. This helps support your content and add more context to make it easier for search engines and users to understand the meaning of the content.
What are the Benefits of Using LSI Keywords?
There are thousands of queries performed every year on the search engines. Google keeps updating its algorithms to include context as a ranking factor such that it is better able to understand related keywords.
When you use LSI keywords in your content, it boosts the contextuality of the content while delivering the following SEO benefits:
- Boosting Website’s Ranking in Search Engines: When you use LSI keywords throughout the body of the content, it helps search engines understand your page and boost the rankings online.
- Semantic Keywords Improve the Relevance of the Content: When you add related keywords in the content body, it helps you make sure that your content is not overstuffed with keywords.
- Related Words Increase the Number of People Finding Your Content: LSI keywords also provide a better search experience for users. In turn, this will translate into improvements in different ranking factors, like the bounce rate, time spent on a page, and others.
How Did LSI Keywords Become Relevant?
It all started in 2004 when the concept of latent semantic index was implemented in the search algorithm of Google. The purpose of these keywords was to assist the search engine in offering users with highly relevant results.
However, Google did not want to focus on a single keyword. The leading search engine also wanted to include the concept of anchor text and hyperlinks, and a group of sites lining to each other.
With a single update to its algorithm, Google was able to modify the manner in which it delivers search results.
Search engine targeting no longer looked for exact-match keywords in the content. Now, the algorithm was able to understand the concept of synonyms and context. Rather than looking at a single keyword and the overall frequency of use to understand the page, Google was now able to understand everything available on the page.
Understand the Impact of LSI Keywords on On-Page SEO
Earlier, Google’s crawlers (known as ‘spiders’) were able to automatically search and scan websites by crawling from one link to another on connected web pages. During crawling, web crawlers would analyze the keywords on the given page to help them understand the topic.
However, after the introduction of LSI keywords, the crawling method has changed. This resulted in major on-page SEO improvements.
- Better Understanding of the Page: In addition to scanning the web page for a single keyword, Google now also scans the page for multiple related keywords. This implies that Google works to understand the overall topic. For this, the search engine depends on semantic indexing to understand the content deeply than only looking for multiple occurrences of a single keyword.
- Reading Pages Contextually: So, now Google is able to read a web page in the same manner in which a human is able to. Google is also able to categorize keywords based on the given context. This implies that the search engine is now able to differentiate between words depending on the smallest details. This is why keyword mapping is crucial.
- Generating More Relevant Results: According to a recent study on Google, it is observed that the search engine is capable of identifying words that frequently occur together to assist the bots in understanding the main topic of the pages it scans. With the help of better categorization, results become more relevant.
- Incorporating the Overall Picture of the Business: The new algorithm is designed to understand the business name, website, and industry to assist Google in getting a comprehensive understanding of each page on the site as they are related to the main business.
The primary goal of Google is to offer users the most relevant results. This is the highest standard of quality that is achieved by search engines only with the help of semantic indexing.
Conclusion
Google has made major advancements in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning. As a matter of fact, Google has become much smarter. The search engines continue to use LSI more often to come across the right context of the content. Therefore, you should focus on learning about how to use relevant LSI keywords to boost on-page SEO.