OntoSearch

Indexing has constantly been considered a highly targeted science. Enter a search query into Google search and the pages that are displayed are normally optimized towards that exact word or term. Nonetheless, in their continual battle to server the most relevant but most natural pages with genuinely helpful details Google has injected latent semantic indexing (LSI) into its algorithms.

What Is LSI?

LSI is a unique indexing method that potentially takes Google search 1 step closer to becoming human in its way of thinking. If we were to manually search through web pages to come across info related to a given search term we would be likely to generate our own outcomes based on the theme of the website, rather than regardless of whether a word exists or doesn’t exist on the page.

Why Search Engines Might Adopt Latent Semantic Indexing

The extremely rigid form of “keyword indexing” also meant that black hat SEO methods had been less complicated to implement. Search engines could be manipulated into ranking a site highly by making use of set formula. Originally, cramming a page with a particular keyword or set of keywords meant a web site would rank highly for that search term. The proceeding set of algorithms ensured that your link profile played much more of an critical part than your keyword density. Reciprocal linking soon followed once again making it possible to manipulate the search engine spiders by exchanging links with tens, hundreds, or thousands of sites.

Reciprocal linking was soon beaten as Google and to a lesser extent Yahoo and MSN gave much less credence to a reciprocal link as they did to a 1-way inbound link. Latent Semantic Indexing is yet another, especially powerful, approach to try and make their result pages appear far more natural with natural pages filled with natural content.

The Effects

The introduction of LSI has seen some dramatic changes in the search engine result pages already. Web sites that had previously performed well simply because of an impressive link profile based on a single keyword have found their pages slip in the rankings. Other pages with a far more diverse portfolio of inbound links are taking the lead with search terms for which they had not previously performed.

SEO is far from dead due to the fact of LSI, in fact if anything, it has most likely increased the will need for professional white-hat SEO on your web site. The field of SEO, though, has almost definitely changed. Site content copywriting for Google’s benefit is not merely made up of keyword density and keyword placement as it once was and link-building methods will will need to change to incorporate LSI algorithms but it can be done.

Writing Content For LSI

If optimizing solely for Google then a web page can, theoretically, be naturally written and naturally worded. When we write we instinctively consist of the appropriate keyword in our text. In order to avoid repetition (or keyword optimization, as it was once called) we would often alter some instances of these keywords for other words with the exact same or very similar meaning. We naturally include the plural or singular form of a keyword as well as distinct tenses and a number of various stems of that keyword. In the eyes of LSI algorithms this is all excellent news.

Looking At Your Link Profile

A link profile should no longer consist of thousands of links with the exact same anchor text (that of your primary keyword). There’s no reason to panic if you already have this kind of profile. Instead you need to look at relevant and similar terms and enhance your link profile by gaining links using these as your anchor text.

What It Provides Web Searchers

From the point of view of web searchers, LSI provides some distinct benefits over its earlier form of indexing. For example, LSI recognizes that the word “engine” in “search engine optimization” is not related to searches for terms like “steam engine” or “locomotive engine” and is instead related to Net advertising topics. In theory, LSI results give a a lot much more accurate page of outcomes as well as offering a broader range of pages still geared towards a specific topic.

Where Google Leads, Others Generally Follow

It is widely acknowledged that Google is the search engine at the forefront of latent semantic indexing. On the whole they try to generate outcomes pages that are literally filled with genuine, useful outcomes and LSI undoubtedly supplies yet another string in their bow. Yahoo and MSN, for now, seem more than happy to go along with keyword particular indexing despite the fact that Yahoo are known to look at singular and plural keyword variations as well as keyword stemming when judging keyword density.

The Effect On Your Website

How it affects the individual Webmaster is dependent on how they go about promoting their site already. If the pages are filled with natural content which includes keywords and keyword alternatives, and the link profile is similarly diversified for a number of related keywords then the fact is it won’t change quite significantly. Even so, if all of your efforts have been concentrated, either on-page or off-page, with a single keyword then it’s time to readdress the balance.