Nowadays millions of searches are performed using Google. We also do various searches to find answers or satisfy our intent. This is where LSI keywords come into play in the SEO world.
If you are from a while in this SEO game, then you might have understood the importance of keywords. In simple terms, keywords are search terms people use to get results.
Now you might be thinking, OK I got the idea about keywords. But what are LSI keywords?
This is why you are here and I would discuss it in detail further.
So let’s get started.
What are the LSI keywords?
LSI keywords are words conceptually related terms that Search Engines like Google use to understand the content on a webpage. LSI is the abbreviation of “Latent Semantic Indexing”.
If you are writing a post on Bikes, then the LSI keywords might be gear, engine, tires, rider, automobile, road, petrol, etc.
What is Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)?
Latent Semantic Indexing or popularly known as LSI was also termed as Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). It is a natural-language processing method developed in the 1980s.
From that update, Google doesn’t look for exact-match keywords inside content anymore. Now Google could understand synonyms and other related terms.
As we know Google’s crawlers (or “spiders”) crawl and index pages based on their algorithms. After this update, Google started analyzing content based on the related terms and synonyms used in it to deeply understand it.
So the concept of keyword density (the number of times a keyword repeated inside a content divided by the total number of words in it) starts declining.
Google is very smart and now it can figure out the overall topic on a page.
Why are LSI Keywords Important?
LSI keywords help Google to understand the content on a deep level. Instead of repeating the same keyword again and again, you can use synonyms and other natural relevant terms.
For example, you have published a blog post on “Best Android Smartphones”.
Google will still walk through the same algorithms and analyze the Title, Meta description, Tag, Content, Image alt texts, etc.
In addition to that, it also scans the content for LSI keywords like display, rear camera, processor, RAM, Android version, etc. These are some of the terms that help Google to deeply understand that the content is all about the Best Android smartphones.
According to a recent Google research paper they use “words frequently occurring together” to deeply understand an article’s main topic.
One important point to mention here!
LSI keywords are not synonyms. They are terms that are closely related to your target keyword.
This does not mean you shouldn’t use synonyms. Using synonyms in your post help with your on-page SEO.
How To Find LSI Keywords?
These are some of the best places and tools to find LSI keywords.
1. Google Autocomplete:
Google Autocomplete is one of the best places to find many LSI terms. You have seen that when you type something on Google, it automatically suggests some related terms.
For example, I have written a post on SEO Tools. To find LSI keywords for that, I entered the term on Google search.
Here are the suggestions I got.
As you can see Google suggests some other search terms. Can you see the bold terms after SEO tools in the image?
These terms are LSI Keywords.
So using these terms in content can helps Google to better understand the topic.
2. Searches Related To Section
Similar to Google Autosuggest there is also a section under the SERP. It is called searches related to the section. These are the terms people also use to search related to this.
So entered the same keyword as before and scroll down. Here’s what I got on the bottom of the page.
Mark the blod terms here and make a list of them. These are also LSI keywords. Add those terms in your content and boost ranking.
3. LSIGraph and KeywordKeg.com
LSIGraph and KeywordKeg.com are two websites to generate LSI keywords. Type any keyword you want to find LSI keywords.
To test this tool I entered the same term SEO tool in LSIGraph. Here’s what I got.
As you can see a list of keywords shows with some more stats.
4. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is one of the best keyword research tools for many reasons. As it is the tool directly from the Search Engine giant you can trust it.
Head to the Google Keyword Planner and enter your targeted keyword. Then it will analyze and shows you a long list of keywords with some other stats.
You can also enter your competitor’s URL to get more keyword suggestions. Analyze the list and you would get a list of nice LSI keywords.
5. Google Image tags
Most of us use Google Image search for various reasons. But very few of them know about Google Image tags.
This is a goldmine of untapped LSI terms.
Enter any keyword you want to target on Google Image search. Then you will find a list of tags like this.
As you can see in the image, there is a list of tags pop up just below the search bar. These are closely related to the terms that we just searched.
How To Use LSI Keywords?
Now you have a list of LSI keywords. Now you might be thinking about how to use these keywords.
In the case of keywords, we know how to use it in various places like Title, Meta Description, Sub-Headings, etc.
But what about LSI keywords?
There is no set of rules to use LSI keywords and there is no specific place for this. As we have seen earlier, Google wants to see these terms inside your page. So you have the independence to use it in various places like Title, Inside content, etc.
As you have a list of LSI terms, you can use them naturally inside the content. Rather than repeating the same target keyword frequently, you can use these terms to increase the readability of content.
Do LSI Keywords Still Working?
LSI keywords are one of the controversial areas of the SEO world. Some people in the SEO community strongly disagree with this concept. But many SEO experts like Brian Dean stand in the favor.
To say frankly, the LSI keyword is not a major ranking factor that needs extra care. This is just an addition to the task that increases the possibility of ranking.
There is no strong evidence against or in the support of LSI keywords.
Conclusion
So these are some of the things you need to know about LSI keywords. You can use semantically-related words, synonymy in your content to get a higher ranking.
To give readers a better experience and Google better understand your topic, you can use some LSI keywords.
