Up till this moment, most bloggers are yet to understand the use of LSI keywords and their importance in SEO. If you are such a fellow, then I must confess that you are really missing a lot in your quest for search engine optimization. For the intro, LSI Keywords are keywords that are semantically related to your primary keyword. For you to have proper knowledge of what they are all about and their importance in SEO, just read on as I throw more light on it.

What Are LSI Keywords?

LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing, and it is a mathematical technique that identifies patterns in the relationship between words contained in an unstructured collection of text. Keywords found using this technique are called Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords or LSI Keywords.

Seems the definition might be a little bit technical and confusing, okay let me bring it down so that a layman can easily understand.

LSI keywords are keywords that are “semantically or closely” related to your main keyword. For example, the LSI Keyword for “Blogging tips” could be “Blogging tips for beginners” or “How to start blog tips”

LSI Keywords might sound more like a Long Tail Keyword, but definitely, they are not the same. Below, I gave a simple elaboration of the difference between LSI Keywords and Long Tail Keywords.

Difference Between LSI Keywords And Long Tail Keywords

LSI keywords may seem similar to Long Tail Keywords, however, they are not the same. For a given primary keyword, its LSI keywords are a hybrid of Long Tail Keywords, its synonyms, and even acronyms.

For example, if your primary keyword is “Smartphone”, your LSI keyword can either be “Best Smartphone in The United States” or “Best Android Phone in the United States.” Please note that the former keyword is actually a Long Tail Keyword of our primary keyword while the latter replaces “Smartphone” with its synonym “Android Phone” to form a totally different keyword.

From the above example, we can say that for a given keyword, its Long Tail Keyword is its LSI Keyword, however, vice versa is not always true. This means, for a given keyword, its LSI Keyword is not necessarily its Long Tail keyword.

You can carry out more research and use specific examples to justify this statement. Now let us look at the importance of LSI keywords in SEO.

Importance Of LSI Keywords In SEO

Since Search Engine Optimization (SEO) all depends on the dictation of Google’s algorithms, and how smart it is to penalize keyword stuffing, below are some important parts played by LSI Keywords and their importance in SEO.

Must read: How To Up Your Game Of SEO in 2017

LSI keywords Maintain Optimum Keyword Density

We all know that keyword stuffing attracts a great penalty from Google, so you have to make sure to keep your keyword density in check to avoid Google’s penalty for over-optimization of keywords. LSI Keywords help you achieve this purpose. You can use a combination of semantically related keywords to keep your keyword density under check.

LSI Keyword Reduces Bounce Rates

Suppose you have a blog that specifically talks about the benefits of Apple (that is Apple fruit). What do you think would be the effect if Google ranks you for the keyword Apple iPhone? Simply put, it will have a negative effect. People who visit your blog will definitely leave immediately, thereby increasing your bounce rate. This situation is neither beneficial to you nor to your readers. You can prevent this from happening by much usage of LSI Keywords.

LSI Keywords Increases Organic Traffic

When you use LSI keywords in your blog posts, you are targeting more keywords which will make sure you appear in Google search results more often.

LSI Keywords Target Wider Audience

Some keywords like “Cellphones” are Geographically specific. By using the keywords “Mobile Phone” or “Smartphones” along with it, you are creating an opportunity of targeting a wider audience.

How To Find LSI Keywords

By Using Google Related Search

This is the traditional method of finding LSI Keywords. You just need to search for your primary keyword on Google and scroll down to the bottom of the search results. You will see the related search queries just below the page.

By Using Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is the most flexible yet underrated keyword research tool you can ever get. It helps you to find different types of keywords in just a twinkling of an eye.

To find LSI Keywords, there is just one small change. Unlike mentioned in the other guide, while searching for Keyword Ideas, you must make sure to keep the option “Only Show Closely Related Ideas” unchecked. This will make sure GKP displays broader terms.

Sorting out the relevant terms from the suggested keywords is a bit tedious but it can give you some unexplored keywords. But, I recommend using this method only if you are unable to find low competition keywords using other methods.

How to Select LSI Keywords

The number of different LSI keywords you choose to use depends on the length of your article. Longer the article, the more keywords you can squeeze in.

While selecting the keywords, most bloggers make the mistake of selecting the ones with higher search volume. I personally prefer using a combination of high volume keywords and some low volume keywords with extremely low competition. This method ensures that you start getting traffic to your blog almost immediately and if your bounce rate is low, your SERP will quickly improve for all the keywords you use in your post.

Also, it is very important to choose only the keywords which are 100% related to your article. Using unrelated keywords just because it is popular will result in higher bounce rates.

Proper Placement of LSI Keywords

Placing your LSI keywords can be a little bit tricky. You must know which keywords are important and needs to be given more priority.

Also, the keywords should be used in a natural way. Search engines will not subscribe to your newsletter or use your affiliate links to buy products. Your readers will. And so you must use your keywords in a natural way.

I generally reserve my Post Title and URLs for a Long Tail Keyword which contains my primary keyword and has low to medium competition with a monthly search volume of at least 200.

For Meta Description, it is recommended to use LSI Keywords containing synonyms of your primary keyword as it can boost your search rankings. So if your primary keyword is “Gionee Mobile phone”, you can use keywords like “Best Gionee Smartphone in 2016” in your Meta Description.

For your post headings and content, you should only go with LSI keywords that you can place naturally in the text.

In conclusion, I will still encourage you to make more research about this topic. This might be limited information on LSI Keywords and their importance in SEO, and using further research you can achieve more. What do you think about this information? Do you think it might be useful? Feel free to share with your friends on various social media, and if you are still confused, kindly drop a comment so we can sort things out. Thanks!