[Updated] LSI Keywords Guide For Bloggers & Marketers in SEO 2019

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords are what you should be focusing on if you want to rank your blog post high in SERPs using power of content and make it worthy of Google love.

Great!

So here's what you are going to learn in this guide:

1. What are LSI keywords
2. How to implement LSI keywords for blog content (and content marketing).
3. How to find LSI Keywords for your chosen topic/ keyword?
4. LSI Keywords Examples.
5. Difference between LSI Keywords vs Long Tail Keywords.
6. LSI Keywords Tools.

What are LSI Keywords? LSI Keywords Guide For Bloggers & Marketers in SEO 2019

There are certain content/information related pointers that Google looks for in a piece of content.
Using these pointers, it tries to understand the overall intent of the published post.

Latent Semantic Indexing is used by Google uses it understand the context and depth of your content. It helps in creating a natural flow to a piece of content.
Let me explain with a simple example.

When Google is assessing a piece of content written on SEO, it is also looking for related terms within it (although not compulsory). If the post has these terms then Google considers it be suitable for providing satisfying answer than the one which might not have these very same keywords.

Please remember that using LSI keywords in your content is not compulsory.
Some topics just don't need them.

Another example could be someone typing in the keyword " Content Marketing " (without inverted commas) for more information. In this case, co-related topics will be SEO, Blogging, Link Building, Guest Posting etc.

Google will assess blog posts based on these pointers to rank them. There are other parameters that Google uses to rank a blog post. But content is one of the major factors that affect it.

LSI Keyword Examples:

Let's look at a real life example to understand this well.

Suppose I want to write a post about WhatsApp messaging. In this case, "WhatsApp Message" is my main keyword.
To get the LSI keywords associated with this keyword, I will simply type "WhatsApp Message" in Google. But as I'm typing this keyword, Google will show some suggestions that I can use along with my main keyword.

Have a look at the image below.

You can clearly see that the LSI for my main keyword could be anyone of those options (as shown in the image above).

Let's look at another example to understand this keyword concept better.
Assume that you are a food blogger planning to write a post on vegan recipes from India. Usually, "best vegan recipes india" is what comes to mind while searching in Google.

Look at the screenshot below and you will find two very interesting keywords that are shown as suggestion by Google.

This indicate that people are looking for information related to these keywords and have some of the most searched words in Google for vegan recipes.

How to find LSI Keywords for your chosen topic/ keyword? How to Use LSI Keywords in SEO

There are multiple ways and tools in the market that you can use to find LSI keywords.

The best place to start off is looking within your target/niche industry for which you are writing the blog post.
Read your niche related newsletters, magazines to get good idea about current and trending topics within that industry. Do an online research around those topics.

Besides, if you are selling a product or service (either offline or online or both) think about questions that your target audience might be have when they your product.

These questions can be split in based on stage where they are with respect to your sales funnel.
Based on these questions, you will be able to see which keywords are relevant for an article for a particular stage of sales funnel.

You will definitely get some interesting and valuable keywords that your target audience wants to know more about.
A huge benefit of industry research based keywords is that it will help you in being seen as an "Expert" or "Industry Thought Leader" in the eyes of Google.

But this will happen only when you write top notch content. Otherwise, no amount of LSI keywords will help if the content is average.

One tool that will greatly help you, and is free, is of course Google.
The best part about using Google is that it shows you LSI keywords based on user search behavior. This is shown in the form of "Autosuggest" (see the example of Marvel Comics Superheroes keyword). These keywords are shown while you are typing within the Google search bar.

Google also shows you additional keywords at the bottom of the search results page under the "Search Related To" section.

You can be rest assured that when it shows co-related keywords associated with a search query then they are definitely relevant to it.
Besides, there are lots of tools that will help you find these keywords without much trouble which have been listed in the next section.

How to implement LSI keywords for blog content (and content marketing):

When you plan to write a blog post on any particular topics, do an in-depth research on it.
Read blog posts that rank on the first (and also first five links on the second page, most people don't do this). This will give you an idea of what specific information people are looking for when it comes to that particular topic.

Using keyword tools, you will need to write down the keywords that are used in these high ranking blog posts.
This should give you an idea of what keywords Google is looking for when showing and ranking content for that keyword.

Write a blog post that covers these keywords and also add relevant additional content that might be missing in other blog posts.

Now that you have keywords at your disposal, where can you place them within your content?

• Sub-Headings: Google gives a lot of value to them, so using these relevant keywords will make it understand the context of your content even better.
• Images: Use them as file name for the images that you will use within the content.
• Introduction and Conclusion paragraph: Use them in the first 3 to 4 sentences at the beginning and concluding paragraph to let Google know what your content is about.

How To Use LSI Keywords To Boost Your Content Credibility?

When Google assesses my blog post it will check these co-related keywords (LSI keywords) to decide if it is helpful to the user when they land this particular blog post.

If it is then Google will rank it high. If not, some other post that is better will be shown to the person who entered that keyword in Google.

But that's not all.

If you scroll down the results page, you will see " Searches Related To ... " section where Google will show additional keywords that it might not have shown in the search bar suggestions.

These can also be used as LSI keywords.

Let's go back to the WhatsApp message example I showed above.
So when I'm writing a post using my main keyword, I can also add keywords like ringtone or download or status.

When I scroll down to the bottom of the results page, Google will show me keyword suggestions as shown in the image below.

We'll look at another example to understand this even better.

Let's assume a person is searching for information about Marvel Comics Superheroes. He/she will open up Google and type in just "Marvel Comics Superheroes" (without inverted commas).

Now, let's assume that there are two blog posts that cover this topic and one of the posts is written by you.
So how does Google assess which one is better and needs to be above the other post?
The process for this is that Google will scan the content (both the posts) to see who has covered the topic in more details.

In the case of searching for "Marvel Comics Superheroes", Google will try and look for pointers such as Stan Lee, Spider Man, Iron Man, Thor, Captain Marvel i.e superheroes in both the blog posts.

The one that covers more topics co-related to Marvel Comics (maybe one of the articles even mentioned about Avengers, Hulk) will be seen as better suited to the user's keyword query.
But wait. There's more.

Have a look at the image below and see if you find something interesting.

If you look at the second from last user query, you will see an interesting keyword; " marvel comics superheroes card game 1978 ". I'm sure not many would've thought of this when they were only typing the main keyword "Marvel Comics Superheroes"

The reason Google shows it as suggestion is because people are actually looking for information about the card game and it happens to be one of the hottest/trending keywords.

There's your LSI keyword that you can include in your article about the marvel comics superheroes.
This is how you build your blog content to make it worthy of high rank & maybe also high-quality backlink.
One important thing to remember is that LSI keywords are not synonyms but related words that are complementary to the main keyword.

But doesn't this sound more like a long tail keyword?

On the surface it does, but LSI keywords are different than long tail keywords.
In the next section, we will look at what separates the two.

LSI Keywords Research Tools List (Free & Paid):

LSI Keywords vs Long Tail Keywords: What's The Difference?

LSI keywords are those which are used within a content to help Google get an overall understanding of the topic covered in that particular blog post.

On the other hand, long tail keywords are a phrases that are a combination of your main keyword and some additional words.

Here's an example of understand the difference between the two.

Let's assume that I want to write a blog post about Samsung smartphone for people with budget of $200.
So, my main keyword for the post would be Samsung smartphone and the long tail keyword would be Samsung smartphone under $200.

In this same scenario, the LSI keywords for me would be battery, display size, storage space, and camera. When I use these additional words within my post then Google will know my content is specifically targeted towards people looking to buy budget Samsung smartphone.

I hope you now have a good idea about the difference between the LSI and Long Tail keywords now.

SEO Benefits of LSI Keywords:

LSI Keywords Tips Conclusion: LSI Keywords Guide For Bloggers & Marketers in SEO 2019

Since video has become a big format for content marketing, see if any of the top ten links are videos or just a blog post with text & images.

• Drives more traffic:
  Your blog/website will get more traffic when you target these keywords. It may not be huge number of visitors but even then, when you add the traffic of each of such co-related terms, it will be a decent flow of traffic.
• Improves your blog's credibility:
  When you write content that Google loves to show its users, then it also directly impacts the credibility of your blog. This also means when you publish content in future, it will also get benefit.
• Positively impacts ranking:
  Using LSI keywords will have a positive impact on the ranking as Google will find it relevant and to user query.
• More visibility with less competition:
  Co-related keywords offer an excellent opportunity to rank for keywords that are less competitive. Using them within your content or as Image SEO component will allow your blog to rank higher for those same keywords and that too with little competition.
• Turn poor content into good one:
  Do you have an article which didn't get much traffic or was published long time back and needs to be updated?.Then use LSI keywords to revive them and make them relevant & contextual for today's users who might be looking for latest information on that same topic.
• Create Pillar/Cornerstone Content:
  A good LSI keywords list is of great help to write in-depth piece of content. Besides, as the number of keywords is more than handful, you can write stand along posts on each keywords.
• Avoid Content Penalties:These keywords will help you avoid keyword stuffing/density. It will keep your site/blog safe from Google penalties related to content.
• Minimizes bound rate:
  Compared to content without LSI keywords, the content consisting of these keywords give the visitors/readers more reasons to stay on your website/blog. Google sees this as a good sign and considers the content as engaging and helpful to the reader. This eventually impacts overall rating of the blog/website positively.
• Generates Sales:
  If you are selling a product or a service then these keywords are invaluable for you. You can target queries based on low volume "buyer intent" keywords to not only rank high but also convert the visitors to buyers.

If not, then create a video as Google has been showing a lot of love to visual content lately.

Another tip is to create an infographic that covers your topic with its main keyword along with c-related words.
Now that you know what LSI keywords are and how you can use them, wouldn't you like to start off immediately with your next piece of content?

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