LSI Keywords – What Are They & Tools To Find Them

LSI Keywords are one of the emerging trends to optimize keyword research. LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing. These are the keywords that are semantically related to your primary keyword. It is based on user search patterns and behaviour, how one keyword search is usually linked to another keyword search. Even Google has pointed that by using more such keywords, your web page typically ranks better, and this makes sense because people are searching for the same keyword in various ways and your page seems to include all the other relevant, related indexing by Latent Semantic Analysis. Thus Google search also prefer such words.

Image Source: gobloggingtips.com

I am breaking down this article into the following subparts –

 1. What Are LSI Keywords?

2.  Using LSI Keywords

3.  Tools To Find LSI Keywords

4.  Why Should You Use LSI Keywords?

1. What Are LSI Keywords?

Now coming to our article, that what are latent semantic indexing keywords. As per Wikipedia,

“Latent semantic indexing (LSI) is an indexing and retrieval method that uses a mathematical technique called singular value decomposition (SVD) to identify patterns in the relationships between the terms and concepts contained in an unstructured collection of text. LSI is based on the principle that words that are used in the same contexts tend to have similar meanings. A key feature of LSI is its ability to extract the conceptual content of a body of text by establishing associations between those terms that occur in similar contexts.”

Sounds a bit technical right? 😛 Say if you are targeting keyword ‘JAR’ then how the search engine will know you are talking about ‘JAR – A container’ or ‘JAR – A file’. Confused? In simple words, say your article or your web page has a keyword ‘Apple’. A user searches google for ‘Apple’. So how search engines will understand this ‘Apple’ i.e. how search engines will know you are talking about Apple – a fruit or Apple – the product. Here search engines use Latent semantic indexing keywords if there are words like fruit, taste, flavour in the article then it would be easy for the search engine to determine that the article is all about the “Apple fruit”. Hence, in this example fruit, taste and flavour can be termed as Latent semantic indexing keywords for keyword “Apple”.

Also Read: 35+ Best Blogging Tools & Resources For You

Those days are gone when search engines used the exact search query to get results. Now, search engines analyze the meanings of the search queries. The content that is semantically linked to the search query is also shown in search results. Where a plain keyword search will fail if there is no exact match, LSI will often return relevant documents that don’t contain the keyword at all. You can say including such keywords with main keywords is SEO friendly. If you google LSI words you will get to know better.

Another Example for Latent semantic indexing keywords

You may have noticed this. Google highlights the synonyms in SERPs.

2.   Including LSI keywords

There is no strict rule where you should include such keywords. They follow the same rules as other keywords. You can include them anywhere in the article such as in title tag, header tags, permalinks, anchor texts etc. You must continue to use your main keyword. Eliminating your primary keyword will be harmful and Latent semantic indexing keywords are only to be used as a supplement. Try to use at least two Latent semantic indexing keyword phrases within your content in addition to your main keyword. Use each no more than two times in the content.

3. Tools To Find LSI Keywords

Now, the question is how to find or search LSI keywords. There are lots of keyword research tools available. I am listing down my list of tools that I use to find such type of keywords.

• SEMRush

SEMRush is one of the powerful SEO tools. It is recommended by many pro bloggers. The related keyword search option is a new feature that SEMrush is still refining. This feature is an option for finding LSI keywords. You can check quality LSI keywords within the broad match search results.

Also Read: SEMrush Keyword Research Review

• KWFinder

KWFinder covers both traditional and competitor keyword research to help you find keywords with low SEO difficulty. You can try it for free! It is a great keyword research tool where you can find hundreds of keywords with low SEO difficulty. It is one of the most popular tools on the market known mostly for its ease of use, user-friendly interface, and accuracy of the keyword difficulty.

Don’t forget to create your free trial in case you haven’t done so yet. It includes access to all 5 Mangools SEO tools.

• Google Auto-Complete

Google Auto Complete is one of the best tools to find Latent semantic indexing keywords. It is a free LSI keyword tool. When you write any keyword in the search query field, it automatically fetches and shows the keywords related to the particular query.

Similarly, it shows related keywords in “Searches related to + ’Your Keyword’” below the search results and meta description.

• Google Keyword Planner tool

Google keyword planner tool is another powerful tool by Google. It is also a free latent semantic indexing tool. It not only shows keywords but also shows average monthly searches, competition, and CPC. It lets you ‘search for keyword and ad group ideas’, which basically gives you a list of such Latent semantic indexing keywords to use in your content. Once you login to the keyword planner, it will ask ‘what would you like to do next’. Select the first option ‘search for new keyword and ad group ideas’, and enter your keywords under the ‘your product or service’ search bar, and click ‘Get Ideas’.

Select the second tab ‘keyword ideas’ to see a list of relevant keywords. There will be several keywords that have low competition when it comes to monthly searches – these are the ones you would want to include in your content as they give your text higher chances of ranking well in search engines.

• LSI Graph

LSI graph is the free SEO LSI tool that generates Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords for you. All you have to do is enter your keyword in the search box and click on ‘Generate’ and it will generate a list of keywords for you as shown below.

• UberSuggest

Ubersuggest is another one of good keywords generator tools that extracts all the Google Auto Complete words for your keyword. It takes your main keyword and adds suggestions based on the alphabet. Ubersuggest is a powerful keyword generator.

• Keyword Tool

Keyword Tool is another latent semantic indexing information retrieval tool that works similarly as Ubersuggest but here we have the option to select Google’s database based on a geographical area. It generates up to 750+ suggestions for every keyword.

• SEOPressor (Newly Added Tool)

SEOPressor is one of the best LSI tools to find LSI keywords. I have been using this tool for quite a long time and have found it very useful. It is an ultimate research tool. It fetches LSI keywords from various search engine APIs. Not only keywords, but SEOPressor also provides many other features such as On-Page SEO, Schema Attributes, Multiple Keyword Analysis, Over-Optimization Monitoring, Social SEO, and much more. It is a premium tool, not a  free tool, but it is worth it. The cost itself is very low as compared to the features provided by this LSI finder tool. It just costs $9/Month. isn’t it great?

Below is the snapshot of this tool:

4. Benefits Of Using In Your Content

So now you are quite familiar with Latent semantic indexing keywords but the question is why you should them in your article. Few benefits of using such keywords are:

• Improve Your Rankings

As discussed earlier, search engines check for Latent semantic indexing keywords while indexing the content of a website. Specifically, they use these keywords as a measuring stick to determine the quality of content, so content that includes primary keywords in moderation and its LSI variations has the best chances of ranking high in search engines.

• Maintains Readers Interest

Sticking your readers to your blog is one of the difficult tasks. You should maintain your readers’ interest to do so.  Most of the time they will be in a hurry but Latent semantic indexing keywords can help in grabbing their attention. These keywords give you the ability to rephrase the main keyword in several different ways to create content.

• Can Keep You Safe From Google Penalty

If you’re trying to recover from a Google penalty or are looking to avoid a Google penalty, then LSI is a great way to fix your keyword-stuffed content. Simply rewrite the content and use these keywords as opposed to the keyword phrase that you initially used to stuff the article. Utilizing such keywords in your content will differentiate it from being marked as spam due to the practice of keyword stuffing.

• Help You Target More Keywords

You can use as many Latent semantic indexing keywords to make your content unique and relevant to your niche (multi vs single niche) thus helping you to target more keywords. Use this, you will be able to beat your competitors and rank higher in SERPs.

• Help In PPC Campaigns

 If you’re looking for a good batch of keywords for your PPC campaigns, don’t just use primary variations of your keyword. Sprinkle in Latent semantic indexing keywords to strengthen when and how your ads appear.

• Image optimization

There may come a time when you might need to use an image more than once on your blog. So, in that case, use such keywords to rename the image each time you use it. This will help optimize it for each piece of content you write.

Final Thoughts

In the last, I would say that using LSI keywords (related terms) in your blog post along with your primary keywords will help you in your better SEO. This will not only avoid keyword stuffing but also comply with search engine new algorithms and guidelines and will help you to keep your keyword density optimized. To use, make a list of all keywords that could be used for a topic and start grouping them. Use the above-mentioned tools to find Latent semantic indexing keywords and also pick the ones that people would likely type in search engines when they are looking for your topic. Then include those keywords in the content of your website pages. By using these keywords, you provide a better experience for both, your site visitors and the search engine. Go and implement this as now you know how to find LSI keywords. Use any of the mentioned LSI tools to find such keywords.

I hope you liked this article to find the information helpful. What are your thoughts on Latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords? Don’t Forget To Share It with your friends and subscribe to our email newsletter for more such updates. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments section below.