In today’s post, I will walk you through the details of an important SEO concept aka latent semantic indexing keywords (LSI Keywords).
You’ll also learn how to use LSI keywords in your content strategy to rise high in the SERPs.
Search engines like Google are giving more priority to understand what a user needs when searching for a keyword phrase.
Google now prefers pages that have well-informed content on a topic rather than pages with thin content that is optimized for a single keyword.
What Are LSI Keywords?
LSI keywords or latent semantic index based keywords are the word phrases that are related to your primary keyword.
These can sometimes be synonyms, substitutions and related words.
But a major of the time you have to take care to include words in your content that are sentimentally and logically related to your keyword.
For example, if you have a post on "Windows", your post should logically have "Bill Gates", "Microsoft", "Windows 7" and so on as mentions.
These words or LSI keywords are what will help Google differentiate your post from the searches related to “luxury windows locks” or “Wooden windows grills”.
In the above image, you can clearly see what could be the potential LSI keywords when you are writing a post on “windows”.
You can also get a couple of LSI keywords from the footer of Google search results that is called "Searches related to..."
LSI Keywords Vs. Long-Tail Keywords
Is there any difference between LSI Keywords and Long-Tail Keywords?
YES!
LSI keywords do not exactly mean long tail keywords but are somewhat similar to them.
The key difference between LSI keywords and long tail keywords is, long tail keywords narrow down the scope of a search whereas LSI keywords broaden the scope with related keywords.
Search engines use LSI keywords to check how deeply you have knowledge on the written topic and also rank your page for related terms.
That is why you have organic traffic to your blog posts from keyword phrases that you haven’t ever targeted or even heard before.
Benefits of Using LSI Keywords:
LSI keywords have so many advantages as far as SEO and user experience is concerned.
Here are the perks of having LSI keywords in your content:
1. Prevents Your Content From Being Labelled as Spam:
LSI keywords prevent your content from being marked spam in the eyes of search engines.
Having a varied mention of keyword phrases that are semantically related to your primary keywords increases your content’s credibility.
This also differentiates your content from spun content.
2. Decrease in Bounce Rates:
LSI keywords help you in reducing bounce rates by preventing your site from ranking for the wrong terms.
Take a look at this example:
There are 2 articles targeted for nearly same term “Notebook”.
But essentially they are about:
Notebook, the movie (2014)
and Notebook PCs
Here Google takes your LSI keywords like “romantic drama film”, “MTV movie awards” and “deleted scenes” to distinguish the first article from the second (that has words like “engineered PCs ideal for home”, Accutype keyboard, etc.).
This way a movie buff doesn’t land on Lenovo site and thus no bounce rates.
LSI keywords example 1
See how LSI keywords change when you change topics!
LSI keywords example 2
3. Increase On-Page Time Spent By Visitors:
It helps to retain visitors on your site.
LSI keywords make the flow of content natural and meaningful.
This gives your readers a peaceful environment without making it feel keyword stuffed.
4. Improve Search Engine Rankings:
It helps you to rank better and for related searches.
Google bots automatically crawl your site and make a perception about what your article is.
Now they use LSI criteria to rank your site for semantically related searches no matter what your target keyword is.
5. Improve Blog Authority:
More rankings = more click through rates = more authority of your blog.
6. Increase Sales:
LSI keywords are also like long tail keywords and hence you can rank higher without less competition.
For example, Amazon records a hefty 57% of all sales through keywords that are long tail and LSI versions of the primary keyword.
This is only because there is less competition and exact buyer intent down there in the LSI zone.
How To Find LSI Keywords?
Now that you know how LSI keywords can bring you better ranking and traffic, you might be wondering how can you find LSI keywords, right?
Well...
You can use following tools to find LSI keywords:
- Google Keyword Planner
- LSI Graph
- Keyword Shitter
- Soovle
- SEMrush
- Mondovo
- KeywordTool.io
Now, let see how to use these LSI keyword generator tools in detail:
1. Google Keyword Planner - For Initial LSI Keyword Research
When you need something, Google is always there.
It can help you with LSI keywords as well.
However this method is a bit basic, and you should only use it in combination with other tools to get the best results.
Like I told you, you can get the initial LSI keywords from Google autosuggest and related searches below the search page of your query. The second method would be to get some useful LSI keywords from the Google Keyword Planner or GKP.
See how I got a good number of related keywords for my project on backpacks.
2. LSIGraph - Generate Perfect LSI Keywords
This tool has been handy for getting some good latent semantic keywords.
All you have to do is go here. Enter your keyword, clear the captcha and hit “generate”.
Get the results which are some gems of LSI keywords.
3. Keyword Shitter - Generate LSI Keywords in Bulk
It shits some of the best and most relevant LSI keywords based on your query.
It also gives you the option to filter the results based on your negative words and positive words.
This way you can choose how your LSI keywords are displayed and refrain from getting keywords that you don’t want.
You can also download the bulk LSI keywords that Keyword Shitter generated for you.
Keyword Shitter Bulk Keyword Generator Tool
If used wisely, you can use these awesome LSI keywords as long tail keywords to write blog posts on.
If you use long tail platinum like me, you can enter all these keywords into the new project section, and thus find the competition of them individually.
Now this is a good idea to filter out the ones with less competition score and target new blog posts with them.
4. Soovle
Soovle is one of the best tools for online marketers.
You enter a query, and it tells you the top 10 searches in some of the popular search engines.
Soovle supports results from Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube and Answers.com.
Soovle is so spontaneous that it starts displaying results as you start typing letters of your search queries.
Soovle Keyword Research Tool
You also get the keywords that people are using as search queries.
Clicking on any search string displayed takes you to the respective search engine for the subsequent searches or research.
5. SEMrush - Find Competitors' Keywords
SEMrush is an ultimate suite that helps you churn out keywords that actually benefit you.
You can use SEMrush to reap out keywords that your competitor actually uses and then use it for LSI keywords or completely new projects of your own.
Go to SEMRush and type in your competitor’s website URL in the search box and hit enter.
Next, select Organic Research > Positions from the left-side menu to go to the ranking keywords page. It will look something like this:
SEMrush Competitive Keyword Research
Now simply pick up the profitable keywords, find LSI keywords in combination with other tools and use them into your blog posts.
That's it!
With SEMrush free account, you can see 10 keywords of any website. To see more keywords, you need to upgrade your account.
6. Mondovo - All-in-one Digital Marketing Toolset
Mondovo is the tool for those who are not yet willing to pay for SEMrush or another premium tools.
This keyword tool gives you results from SEMRush so you can use it for free.
Here is how to use it:
1
Sign up for Mondovo here. After you sign up you will be given some free credit points. These points are the ones you will invest when doing keyword research for your project on mondovo .
2
Now go to the SEO tab and select keyword research option from it.
Mondovo SEO Keyword Research
3
Then you will be pointed to a page where you have to enter your base keyword.
4
You can also choose to give a competitor URL to find out the the related keywords your competition are ranking for.
5
After that you choose the language you want your LSI keywords to be in and also the country you want to target.
6
The results appear within a small time of your hitting “get results”.
7. KeywordTool.io: FREE Alternative to Google Keyword Planner
Keywordtool.io is another good tool, that can be used to generate keywords and, more importantly, LSI keywords.
Though it is a paid tool, the free version is more than enough for generating LSI keywords for your blog posts.
It displays the result keywords in an alphabetical order so you can also find your latent semantic index based keywords easily.
Here is how to do it:
- Insert your base keyword: Keyword tool lets you insert one seed keyword and allows you to search for LSI keywords based on four different search engines.
- Choose the target search engine: You can search for LSI keywords based on Google, Bing, YouTube and App Store.
- Choose the selected country: You can also target your LSI keywords based on your audience demographics.
- Choose the language: Select your preferred language.
- Hit enter. You’ll get your results similar to the one displayed below.
Find LSI Keywords using keywordtool.io
Another tool with the similar features but worth trying is UberSuggest.
The number of ways to find out LSI keywords is unlimited. You can also use the same tools that generate keywords to scrape out LSI keywords for your articles.
Here is a list of some of more tools to generate LSI keywords.
How To Use LSI Keywords To Rank Your Content Higher?
Now that you have gotten all the valuable LSI keywords, the next million dollar question is how to use them?
Most bloggers that I have come across either inserts the LSI keywords into their content without any strategy or mess up their primary keyword with LSI keywords.
However, using LSI keywords correctly in your content has an importance of its own.
Correct placement of LSI keywords can make or break the rankings and credibility of a post.
Here are some tips to make the most out of your LSI keywords.
1. Choose the right keyword:
Most LSI keyword tools generate related keywords based on a set of an algorithm.
They aren’t human produced hence they lack that personal touch.
Moreover, you will find out that in each list of generated keyword, there are phrases that aren’t related to your primary keyword or are too broadly related.
Unrelated LSI Keywords
These terms must be removed or filtered out.
Since having phrases that have nothing to do with the topic you write is also detrimental for your SEO.
In the above screenshot, if you are writing an article about backpack for dogs, and you chose the keyword, backpack for cats, as well because it was suggested, and then it will harm your SEO.
It will not remain relevant for users, and search engines will flag your article.
TIP
If you use more than one tool to generate LSI keywords then chances are you might have some of the keywords twice or more.
In that case, an easy hack to remove duplicate keywords is to copy all the keywords onto a Google spreadsheet and run the remove duplicates extension. This will crop out any traces of duplicate keywords.
2. Place it naturally:
Having so many LSI keywords might be a disadvantage to some because you have to place them naturally and not inject them anywhere and everywhere.
You need not use all of the generated keywords in every single article.
Only choose the ones that have value for your content.
Brian Dean also suggests sprinkling your LSI keywords into your content in a way that they add meaning and value to your blog post.
3. Target more positions:
You can also use your LSI keywords in your post title, as a question in the conclusion and also as anchor text to an internal link.
You can also use them in title tags, permalinks and most importantly in introduction and conclusion section of your blog posts.
This appears natural and gives a flow to your post.
Neil Patel has mastered this skill. Check out how he leverages the conclusion section to insert a few LSI keywords as well as interact with the audience.
You will find that his copy appears completely natural in terms of relevancy.
Over to you:
With this guide to using LSI keywords in your content strategy, I hope you will write better content.
Most importantly, write content that is relevant and meaningful to your readers.
Having words with the same meaning or synonyms not only makes your content light but also makes it smooth for reading.
Did you notice how I used the phrase “Words with same meanings or synonyms” as an LSI keyword for my content?
That’s the trick.
Have you used LSI keywords in your articles?
Do you know a tool that is wonderful but I haven’t mentioned here?
Comment below to discuss more.
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