LSI, or Latent Semantic Indexing, is literally the indexing of documents based on related or semantically related keywords. Google, in particular, is widely believed to use LSI or a similar form of topic based indexing when compiling and ranking web pages. They've done this in order to try and provide more organic results of websites that contain genuine, naturally written content.



Better Search Results For Surfers

The premise of semantic search indexing is to generate better results for surfers. Content that includes semantically related keywords will theoretically rank better than a site that includes only one keyword and no related keywords. Fortunately, there are ways to ensure that your content includes some of the more pertinent keywords related to your page.

~SEPS

A SEPS, or Search Engine Presumed Synonym, is essentially a semantically related keyword. By placing a ~ before each of the keywords in a search phrase, you will be displayed results for your search with related synonyms highlighted in bold. This is also a reasonable indication of the type of content that surfers are looking for when they search for a given keyword.

Lexical Databases

For an even more semantic approach it is possible to find some ideas from a lexical database. Google semantic indexing, or topic based indexing, must use some form of a lexical database so using one yourself can produce very positive results.

Refining Your Traffic

Semantic indexing can actually help you to target search engine visitors even more accurately. A page of natural content will organically lead in a specific direction using keywords very appropriate to your target market. By using semantically related keywords that are accurate and naturally fit with the topic of your site, you can improve search rankings and provide your site with laser targeted traffic.

The Semantic Link Profile

Even the anchor text on inbound links should be varied to include related keywords as well as your main keyword. Again, this helps in other ways too. Essentially by optimizing for your primary keyword you are also naturally optimizing for other keywords, which is another way of sending more traffic to your site from the search results.

What It All Means

The biggest changes for anybody already engulfed in an SEO campaign, will be the discovery of semantically related phrases and the altering of content. On an ongoing basis it is also good practice to attain links from authority sites that use a good variety of keywords. A link profile that is heavily biased towards one single keyword may not prove as effective as it once was.

Benefits For Us All

While these changes have been made specifically to assist surfers, the addition of good and natural content to your pages is generally good practice. It helps to convert the visitors that you do receive and it also helps to direct the long tail of search to your pages. By including semantically related keywords in your content and your links you will be naturally targeting a greater number of keywords. It really is a win/win situation.