LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing.

I won’t go into the detailed and technical explanation here of how Google incorporates LSI into their search algorithm. All you really need to know in order to take advantage of LSI is that Google understands synonyms and related terms which may be associated with your main keyword. That’s a pretty simplistic definition. However, simply knowing about Latent Semantic Indexing and incorporating the theory into your on and off-page optimization can greatly boost your Google rankings.

LSI is another example of what makes Google the top dog in search. They understand if they can associate words together, they can offer the very best of search results. For example, they have learned that the term “green automobile” (as in electric car) is often found on pages with words such as environment, pollution, energy, electric, etc. Therefore, they won’t serve your page about environmental friendly “green cars” as a search result to someone they believe is searching for a green colored car. Of  course the method is not perfect, but it does result in very targeted results usually.

The list of examples goes on… “lemon” as in the pie OR a problem car, “apple” as in the fruit OR the company…and the list goes on. But the point is that Google’s search engine is very good at understanding exactly what a specific page on your site is about simply by analyzing the other words on the page and finding patterns.

So how can you use LSI to your benefit when optimizing? First, do a search in Google’s keyword tool for your general keyword. But DO NOT check the box to only show results with that specific term. This will allow you to pick Google’s “brain” for all the terms they believe are related to your keyword.

When you write your content, use those related terms. Not only does it reinforce to Google EXACTLY what your page is about, it allows you to more easily write your content. For example, if your article is about “dog training”, you can safely substitute the word “canine” for dog every so often. Google will know exactly what you are talking about and you don’t have to worry so much about over-optimizing with any given word.

Although I like Market Samurai’s keyword tool the best, you can still make powerful use of the LSI concept simply by using Google’s free tool  (just type in “google  keyword tool” into Google to find it).

LSI is not the end-all SEO strategy, but it is a part of the overall strategy that many of your competitors are neglecting.