The Importance of LSI Keywords And How To Discover Them

When we deliver content, we must make sure our content is able to reach out to the target audience effectively. But how can we do that? Using the right content distribution channel is also important, but we also have to make sure that our content is written with the same terms used by our audience on search engines. SEO doesn’t stop there. Not only you should target those keywords that are high in search volume, but you also have to utilize LSI keywords to clarify the context and topic of your content to be considered highly-relevant to the queries by both users and Google. Let’s dive more into details on LSI keywords, why they matter for SEO, and how we can utilize them for content optimization.

What Are LSI Keywords?

Why Are LSI keywords important for SEO?

How Do I Use LSI Keywords?

How Do I Discover LSI keywords?

Where Should I Place LSI Keywords (Naturally)?

What are the LSI keywords?

LSI keywords (latent semantic indexing) are simply keywords related to the topic your page is about. They include not only just synonyms but other words that often occur when a certain topic is written about.

For example, if a website is talking about Apple, how do search engines know if the website is talking about the brand or the fruit? This is where search engines look for latent semantic indexed keywords to figure out what the page is specifically talking about.

Why Are LSI keywords important for SEO?

Google’s aim is to deliver to its users the most relevant content with the highest quality. Some indicators of quality are the website’s backlink profile, domain authority, and not being spammy. As for indicators of relevance, ever since the Panda update of Google’s search algorithm, Google has been shifting their approach of detecting relevance from a keyword-match algorithm to more of a topical-match method. Topical match means that they are trying to understand the meaning of a web page instead of simply matching keywords when deciding relevance.

So, this means that the more LSI Keywords (related keywords) of your target topic you include, the more relevant your content will appear to Google for that topic. This will result in a higher ranking because Google will know that your content will satisfy what the user is searching for (of course your quality mentioned above has to be on point too).

How Do I Use LSI Keywords?

Let’s get something clear: simply repeating and stuffing your content with keywords or even with LSI keywords will surely get you penalized by search engines. Use LSI keywords to help you rank, but do not let them interfere with the quality of your content.

The idea of LSI keywords is that you would just naturally include them as you write. With this in mind, you must try to include them as naturally as possible. If you simply stuff the keywords, you will end up reducing readability and Google will notice.

For example, if you are a travel blogger writing about a new vacation spot you found, you’ll want to make sure you talk about the “flight”, the “accommodation”, the “visit”, etc. Search engines know that topics of travel will often include those related keywords. This is why using an LSI keyword tool can help you. It never hurts to see what other related keywords you can talk about in your content with LSI generators or LSI technology already out there.

The more you use these LSI keywords, the more relevant your article will be to your topic and the faster your content will get exposed to the consumers who are looking for it.

How Do I discover LSI keywords?

There a list of useful LSI keywords you can utilize when getting LSI keyword ideas, but in this article, we will be utilizing Twinword Ideas’ LSI graph as an example.

First, let’s take the word “inspire” as an example. This tool is designed to visually map the semantic distance between words, and it helps you organize your thoughts and extend your vocabulary.

Closely related words to “inspire”, according to Twinword Ideas LSI Graph, are the following:

• Encourage
• Inspire
• Cheer
• Assist

Nouns related to “inspire” are:

• Motivation
• Energy
• Hope
• Joy

What makes this tool stand out from other word clouds is the detailed information for a given word. Let’s continue with the example of “inspire” and check the results below:

Further, you can go ahead and see the usage of the word in example sentences. This information provides real-time examples of how the keyword is used.

If you are also interested in trending keywords, you should check out Twinword Ideas Trending Keywords. With Trending Keywords you can discover real-time trends and tweets related to the searched term.

Where Should I Place LSI Keywords (Naturally)?

Once you have gotten enough LSI keyword ideas, you’ll want to include them in your content as naturally as possible. Below is a list of some places you can position your LSI keywords:

• Title of pages and images
• Header tags
• Beginning and ending paragraphs
• Anchor texts
• Throughout the pages, you want to rank higher
• Meta description
• PPC campaigns

For example, let’s imagine you’re writing a post with the topic “how to unclog a toilet without a plunger”. It may look like this before optimizing with LSI keywords:

BEFORE

STEP 1: Squirt generous amounts of dish soap or shampoo into the clogged toilet.

STEP 2: Add a gallon of very hot (but not boiling) water to the bowl.

STEP 3: Wait a few minutes and watch. The water should break up the toilet paper, and the soap should help it slide down the pipe.

With the help of a useful LSI tool, you’ve got a list of LSI keywords and after you optimize your content with those keywords, it may look like this:

AFTER

STEP 1: Squirt generous amounts of dish soap or shampoo into the clogged toilet in your bathroom or restroom.

STEP 2: Add a gallon of very hot (but not boiling) water to the bowl.

STEP 3: Wait a few minutes and watch. The water should break up the toilet paper, and the soap should help it slide down the pipe and clear your plumbing.

Now, you may see those changes as minor, but let’s compare the relevancy score of both texts using the text-similarity technology.

The original text got a similarity score of 0.47 when compared with the topic “how to unclog a toilet without a plunger” while the revised text with additional LSI keywords scored 0.51.

By adding just a few LSI words into your content, you can improve your content’s relevancy, and therefore, appear as the highly relevant content for users to Google.

You can add as many LSI keywords as you can do, but remember to position them naturally. Unnatural or too many keywords can hurt user experience or even be considered as keyword stuffing and get penalties from Google. Always keep your users in mind and provide high-quality content to them. When you satisfy users, you’ll naturally and eventually satisfy Google as well.

As mentioned above, LSI keywords can be utilized for many other areas such as metadata, anchor text, or even PPC campaigns. For more details, read more of our article about where to position keywords on your web page.

Other Keyword Research Related Posts You Might Be Interested in:

• Keyword Research Guide: How To Find The Best Keywords For SEO

• What Is Keyword Stuffing And How To Avoid It

• Where Do Keyword Research Tools Get Google Search Data and Statistics

• Long-Tail/Short-Tail Keywords and How to Find Them