Latent Semantic Indexing - What Exactly Is It?

In my work as an author, I have become very interested lately in Latent Semantic Indexing, or LSI.  The big to-do about Google's latest damage to websites and rankings has prompted me to take a look at what they are doing.  Anyone with any expectations for their articles and web copy knows that Google's ranking algorithms change constantly, and this causes a great deal of frustration and concern, especially to those attempting to make a living on the internet.

LSI is simply a system, based on the vector space model of document classification, that brings relevancy to an article. One of the biggest advantages of LSI is that it is a strictly mathematical approach, with no insight into the meaning of the documents or of the words it analyzes. Because of the scope of this article, I will leave that to your personal research.

For the layman, relevancy is simple to explain.  Let us say you have a website on dog training.  Utilizing the common way of thinking towards keyword density, your copy might go like this:

"Welcome to our dog training site!  Here, you will find all you need to know about dog training.  We will show you methods and tricks to make dog training easy.  We have been involved in dog training for twenty years.  See our articles and information on dog training on our website.  We also have a good ebook here on dog training."  Sounds like ad copy, doesn't it?

Keyword density on this paragraph is obviously high for the keyword "dog training".  You can see it on most every website you visit.  However, this is not what Google is now reportedly looking at, or placing more weighting on.  Let's try again.  My example will be used utilizing Wordtracker's Keyword Universe, using both lateral and thesaurus. Let's use "dog training" again.  My research will be from Wordtracker, using the lateral and thesaurus options:

1.  dog training2.  dog3.  training4.  puppy5.  obedience6.  dogs7.  puppies8.  behavior9.  agility10.  canine11.  pet12.  housebreaking13.  tracking14.  puppy training15.  obedience training

"Everyone loves a puppy.  However, to keep everyone happy, dog training must be used.  You want your new canine friend to be happy and healthy, so proper housebreaking is essential.  Although puppy training is not hard, it takes a lot of dedication on the part of the owner.  Puppies at the weaned stage are really no different than babies - they eat, they poop, and are only driven by these basic instincts.  Training them is the responsibility of the owner.

Dogs exhibit pack behavior, and it is one of the things that cannot be overlooked in the course of obedience training.  Nothing less than that they understand that you are the "big dog" will do to keep your pet happy.  they must know where they stand in the pack to develop the obedience required of them. 

People acquire dogs for many reasons. Whether it is for companionship, utilizing them for their agility and knack for tracking, or just a plain guard dog, dog training is essential for the relationship between the dog and the owner for the utmost in pleasure and peace in the home."

I wrote this article in about 5 minutes, using my 15 keywords from Wordtracker. I used the root keyword, dog training, twice, or roughly 1%. For a 500 word article, 15 keywords is more than enough, and it is a sure bet that search engines will find this more relevant, and anyone reading the article will be happy with the results received. Reading the first example of dog training would surely turn most people off, and it is a sure bet that it would show in your sales.

There is much more to LSI than is covered here - this is just a basic overview.  Visit my site at http://www.exclusiveprivatelabelrights.com to find out more.