What Is LSI Keyword

& How To Use It Effectively

Chapter Content
1 What is LSI Keywords?
2 Why Are LSI Keywords Important For SEO?
3 How Can LSI Keywords Improve Your SERP Ranking?
4 How To Find LSI Keywords
5 How To Use LSI Keyword Effectively
6 Looking For A More Advanced LSI Keyword Tool?
1. What Is LSI Keywords?

Latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords are essentially ​keywords that are semantically
related to your main keyword,​ used in a search query. These LSI keywords supplement the
main keywords and act as helpers to give a stronger contextual information to the search
engines and users. However, it is never intended to be the synonym of the said keyword or
keywords that are similar in meaning.

In short, an LSI keyword is a keyword (or word phrases) that has a high degree of correlation
(relevance) to the primary keyword.

LSI keywords of the main keyword "bakery".

 
Latent semantic indexing​ was originally developed as a mathematical method in the late 1980s
for better accuracy in information retrieval. The LSI technology is then widely implemented in
various grading and analyzing of text to uncover the meaning of the text in response to user’s
queries.

These accompanying words that provide context to the main keywords are what Google
understands as LSI keywords to decide which is the correct meaning.

If Google is able to understand your content better, then the higher is your rankings.
2. Why Are LSI Keywords Important For SEO?

Understanding and implementing topical LSI keyword usage is critical in 2019. By strategically
integrating them into your content helps your SEO and provides your website with a competitive
advantage.

Let’s look at its benefits and why are they such an important aspect to your SEO today.

(i) Helps Google’s algorithm determine the content quality and relevance to the search
term

LSI keywords supplement a stronger contextual information and meaning to a topic. Therefore,
by including semantically related search phrases in your page’s SEO copy, you are giving the
search engines a better understanding of your page, company, products, and services.

Besides that, it also allows Google to improve the match between what people search for and
what they find in the search results. Well true enough, ​LSI was designed to help searchers
find what they’re looking for, not just what they search for.

More than ever before, topics build search engine results instead of just stuffing keywords. All
the recognition given on LSI keywords encourages website owners and their search engine
optimization specialist to create and maintain quality content.

At the end of the day, Google will be happy and so will your website visitors. Quality content
keeps leads once they are in your funnel and hence increasing the conversion rate.

(ii) LSI keyword carries heavier weight than keyword density

Keyword density is the number of times your keyword occurs in your written content and is
measured as a percentage. There was a time when all Google cared about was keyword
density to rank a page. That goes to say, the more keywords you add in your content (whether
relevant or not), the higher you will get ranked.

As we all know, the method called “keyword stuffing” was quickly learned by marketers and
horribly spammed not long after. Using repetitive keywords can put your page at risk of getting a
penalty; with LSI keywords, you can safely add closely related words without worrying about
getting penalized.

Thus, to use them effectively, spread them throughout the body of your content and always
make sure it sounds natural ​or ​makes sense to the readers​.
This would be the perfect solution to avoid over-optimization of keywords too. We have been
seeing Google constantly upgrading it’s algorithm to identify and sort the most appropriate
content for its users. Slowly and surely, we’ll foresee Google removing keyword density as the
main ranking factor for your website and thereby, LSI keywords remain victorious until today!

(iii) LSI keyword empowers other keywords in a content

When you are creating a new website or writing an article, keywords will play the main role in the
SEO part. Just so you know, all 3 classes of keywords (primary, secondary and tertiary) will help
direct organic traffic to your website.

They also add more context to the keywords, making it easier to find more relevant results for
your search. Google is avidly focusing on building relevancy between a category of keywords to
a website ​rather than just a single keyword. Ideally, you will have higher chances to rank if the
content includes other relevant terms than just repeating a long tail keyword over and over
again.

In short, LSI keywords acts as a supplement to the​ primary, secondary and tertiary keywords
used in a content. Implementing it helps in further strengthening the context and semantic
relation of the content to it’s topic.

3. How Can LSI Keywords Improve Your SERP Ranking?

LSI keywords can help you to boost your SERP ranking. Understanding LSI is now a
requirement for modern SEO professionals and content marketers.

Ultimately, your SEO strategy needs to mirror the sophistication of Google’s ever-changing
search engine algorithm if you want to rank high.

Here are three reasons LSI keywords can improve your SERP ranking:

(i) Google better understands the context of your page

Using LSI keywords to integrate the most relevant information and phrases that closely match
what searchers are looking for in a content, helps Google to understand the context of the
content better.

Since Google is constantly trying to provide its users with better search results and is focusing
on the whole context of the page rather than just the density of the keywords, hence your page
which is containing LSI keywords will get a better ranking because Google will be able to
understand your page better now.
Let’s look at an apple as the example for this round. If in a set of content we can find the words
“healthy”, “sweet” or “fruit salad” it’s safe to say that the word “apple” in this context
means the fruit.

On the other hand, upon finding words like “lightning port”, “iPhone” or “gadgets” being
used, it stands clear that “apple” in that context means the giant tech company​.

To put it briefly, the right usage of LSI keywords helps Google assign the right search ranking.
When you make Google’s job easier by including related keywords, then you’ll see your
rankings go up too!

LSI keywords tell Google the right “Apple” you refer to. 
 
(ii) LSI Keywords helps you to better understand user intent

Understanding what users want, professionally known as user intent, has become a driving
force in SEO and search marketing to bring relevant people to your site. This is because
everyone searches differently or has a different goal in mind.

When you search for ‘warriors’ in LSIGraph, it will return with a list of LSI keywords. All these
keywords give an insight to what people have in their mind when searching for ‘warriors’ in the
search engine.
As a non-NBA fan, little did I know when people are looking for warrior, they are actually looking for the 
NBA team.

From the results, we can see that when people type in ‘warriors’, it is the American professional
basketball team ‘Golden State Warriors’ that they have in mind rather than the ‘warriors’ soldiers
or fighters.

So, if you are planning to write a blog post on the basketball team “Warriors”, these are probably
the things that you may want to talk about; ​golden state warriors​, ​warriors schedule​, ​golden
state warriors score ​and so on.

By knowing your user’s intent, it helps drive your keyword research accurately. As an online
marketer, it’s our job to discover what our potential customers are searching for and giving it to
them the best that we can.

(iii) Your page will appear on SERP for “keyword variations”

Once again, LSI keywords are closely related to your main keyword, that also means your page
is going to come up in the search results for your main keyword as well as for those keyword
variations.
By going through these variations, you get to know what other people are searching for too. The
returned results that you normally see at the bottom of the SERP makes your content
LSI-friendly if you include them naturally in your content.

And there you have it, more relatable topics to scribble on!

4. How To Find LSI Keywords

At this point, you ​s​hould have fully understood the importance of LSI keywords in doing keyword
optimization.

Now let’s look into how you can find them easily using this free keyword tool.

Use LSIGraph!

Use LSIGraph to get your LSI keywords

LSIGraph is a simple-to-use tool that gives you hundreds of LSI keywords within a second.
Currently, it has a database of over 30 million keywords for you to benefit from.

Using the free version of the LSI keyword tool, you can generate a list of LSI keywords. Do go
ahead and try it out!

For instance, type in the keyword “plumbing services”. You will see a list of LSI keywords ready
to be used such as “24 hour plumbers near me”, “plumbers near you”, and the list goes on.

LSIGraph generates hundreds of LSI Keywords for you

From the list of LSI keywords, choose those keywords that are relevant to your content and
apply them.

Let’s look into the following scenarios:

 
 Seed keyword LSI Keywords found in LSIGraph 

Plumbing service ● 24 hour emergency plumbing service 

● 24 hour plumbing services 
● 24 hour plumber service 
● list of local plumbers
● sewer cleaning services
● best local plumbers 
● affordable drain cleaning 
● cheap plumbers near me 
 
Assuming the keyword​ that you want to target is​ “plumbing service”.

By using LSIGraph, you have a list of LSI keywords that you can use in your content. But you
cannot simply include them in your content.

If your plumbing service is offering a 24 hour plumbing service, then ​you should include the
LSI keywords “24 hour emergency plumbing service” or “24 hour plumber service” in
your content.

Most plumbing services is not planned or not expected to happen and the repair works need to be
carried out as soon as possible.
Before adding LSI keyword

We are offering ​24 hour emergency plumbing service​ ​to our customers. ​This is because most plumbing
services is not planned or not expected to happen and the repair works need to be carried out as soon as
possible.
After adding LSI keyword
 
If it is not offering a 24 hour plumbing service, but at an affordable rate, then you may include
the LSI keywords “affordable drain cleaning​” or “​cheap plumbers near me​”.

We will look into this in a deeper scale next.

5. How To Use LSI Keyword Effectively?

Now, I’m sure you’ve already known the benefits of LSI keywords, proceeded to try out the great
LSIGraph tool, gotten your best LSI keywords. So what’s next in line? You’d want to implement
them in your content so that it reads well, right?
But where and how are you going to do that? Theoretically, you should sprinkle them throughout
the body of your article, as long as it sounds natural and appropriate. Allow me to explain to you
in detail in the following paragraph.

● Main places on where you should include your LSI keywords

○ In headings
A content’s headings (H1, H2, H3 tags) should include some of your keywords. If you don’t
know this, Google pays special attention to the headings of pages that they crawl. LSI keywords
may then help you decide how to break your content into smaller sections.

<h1> How Can LSI Keywords Help You To Boost SEO Traffic? </h1>
- Explanation

<h2> What Are LSI keywords? </h2>

- Explanation

<h2> Why Are LSI Keywords Important For SEO </h2>

- Explanation

<h2> How Can LSI Keywords Improve Your SERP Ranking? </h2>
- Explanation

Use LSI keywords in your content’s headings

○ In link anchor text

Texts that link to another location or document on the web are referred to as anchor text. For
example, “​LSIGraph​ generates unlimited LSI keywords for free”. LSIGraph is the anchor text.
You could include “LSI SEO”, “keyword tool” and so on. Basically, it’s advisable to vary and
diversify your anchor text as failing to do so will tell Google you are forcing them in.

LSIGraph​ generates unlimited LSI keywords for free. LSI Keyword is a keyword that is semantically
linked to the main keyword.
Use LSI keywords in your content’s headings

○ In the alt text, file names, and titles of images

When you upload an image online (in this case WordPress), you’ll see the alternate text like the
screenshot below.
The best practice for using alt text with an image is to make it descriptive; don’t just stuff keywords in
as Google will deem it as an unnatural optimization.

○ In the page title to support your target keyword

Use semantic keywords and craft a new title for your blog post. A good practice that you can
emulate when writing page titles is to use your target SEO keywords or keyword phrase at the
start of the page title. This is also to make sure that your page title doesn’t get cut off in mobile
SERPs when you include them in front.

○ Use closely-related LSI keywords close together (naturally) on the page

Nobody wants to read a keyword stuffed content, right? It can be pretty hard to read and
annoying to see the same word repeatedly. What you can do is to use your main keyword within
the first paragraph. Next, use that keyword and its variations throughout the content for best
effects. Remember: write for ​humans first​.

● How many LSI Keywords should you use?

As you can see, you can use LSI keywords anywhere within the content of your article. But
more doesn’t necessarily mean better. The question is: How many LSI keywords you should be
using in your content?

A good rule of thumb is to maintain a 2-to-1 ratio of LSI keywords to your main keywords. When
using LSI keywords in your content, make sure that they are in the same paragraph of the
keyword they are supporting as this will help provide more context of your main keyword to
Google. What’s more is, Google can better understand your content now.
6. Looking For A More Advanced LSI Keyword Tool?

Use LSIGraph Premium!

If you are using the LSIGraph premium version, you can unlock all the metrics that is not
available in the free version.

Let’s take a look at the results returned in the premium version with the same keyword that was
previously used; “plumbing services”.

The dashboard of LSIGraph Premium

Based on the keyword “plumbing service”, the tool will generate a complete list of LSI keywords
together with the data metrics such as trend, volume, CPC, Competition and Latent Semantic
Value (LSV). These are the important metrics that allows you to do your keyword research
faster and more effective.
Latent Semantic Value is a measurement of how valuable the LSI keyword is in a context or
topic. It is a value computed and formulated by our data analyst specialist who is experienced in
LSI keyword research and SERP competition.

The LSV takes into account the keyword search volume, keyword competitiveness, as well as
the traffic potential of the keywords in a particular niche. The number ranges from 0 -100, with
100 being the best, 0 the worst.

So, the higher the LSV, the more valuable is the keyword. For instance, it is better to have
keywords with LSV of 100 than keywords with a score of 54.

In saying so, always consider the relevancy of your topic when choosing LSI keywords. High
LSV value does not mean it is a must to be used in your content if it does not fit in your content.

The rule of thumb is​ choose high LSV LSI keywords that are closely related to your topic.

* What Is LSIGraph?

LSIGraph is an advanced keyword search tool specifically designed to generate LSI keywords
for you.

LSIGraph is powered by more than 32 millions semantic LSI keywords in it’s database, and
the number is still increasing. The large database enables LSIGraph to generate a great
amount of LSI keywords that are relevant to your main keywords.

The good thing is, LSIGraph provides keyword metrics such as keyword trend, search
volume, cost per click, as well as the competition of your main keyword. What’s even better is,
it also tells you which LSI keyword you should use in your content based on it’s Latent
Semantic Value (LSV), a measurement of how valuable a LSI keyword is in a content.

In short, LSIGraph is All-You-Need for a thorough keyword research, and it gives you the
exact LSI keyword you’ll be needing to optimize your content for a stronger SEO!
Conclusion

Understanding what LSI keywords are is as important as how to use it effectively. Using LSI
keywords in your content naturally helps search engines to understand your context better and
rank it higher for your targeted search query.

Making good use of LSI keywords will improve both your content reach by mapping the highly
targeted and relevant user search queries, as well as content quality.

The strategies of LSI keywords have been playing a huge role in the success of many of our
sites today. If you’re new to this, be sure to follow our ultimate free guide to help you get started.
We hope you are ready to dive in deeper into mastering LSI keywords to empower your website
and succeed thereafter. See you in the LSIGraph app!