LSI Keywords: The Secrets to Finding and Ranking for Multiple Keywords Successfully

Gone are the days when search engines like Google used exact keywords to process search results. Google uses a host of next-gen methods such as LSI keywords, RankBrain, voice search, and more. to provide very relevant information to Internet users.

What does that mean ?

It just means that you don't need to use exact match keywords to improve your organic rankings. The use of keywords relevant and contextual in your articles can also come in handy.

This is where the concept of latent semantic indexing comes into play.

The best part is that not only will you satisfy Google's bots, but you'll also provide the best information to users.

If you've been doing SEO for blogs for a while, you must already know the importance of keyword research. Obviously, finding the right keywords is the fastest way to get more organic traffic from Google.

But most people do their keyword research poorly: they find either competitive keywords or terms that are too broad, so they don't get much traffic, even if their content is great. . The use of semantic keywords can fill this gap.

So we're going to uncover all the information you need about LSI keywords so you can rank for multiple keywords from a single web page.

Are you ready ? Let's get into the details.

Table of contents

LSI Keywords: How to Find and Optimize Semantic Keywords

Before discussing the issue of researching LSI keywords to improve your search engine rankings, it is best to explain what they are and what the benefits of using them are.

What are LSI keywords?

LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords are the keywords that are semantically related to your main keyword. These are NOT synonyms, but words closely related to a search query or keyword phrase.

In short, these keywords complement the main keywords (or search queries) and provide strong contextual information to search engines like Google.

These keywords can be

• Synonyms
• Substitutions
• Related words (to a particular phrase/word, topic or search queries). For example, Python is an LSI keyword for programming language and Apple is an LSI keyword for iPad, MacBook, iPhone, etc.

In other words, semantically related keywords are used by search engines like Google, Bing, etc. to bring together words with familiar meanings to provide search engine users with a better search experience.

Examples of LSI keywords

You can simply consider the latent semantic keywords as synonyms for the keywords.

For example: cute, adorable, attractive, charming are different words but they all have the same meaning.

1. If your page contains keywords such as red apple, shimla apple, apple cider, apple juice, apple calories, etc… then Google understands that your page is probably about fruit.
2. On the other hand, if your page contains keywords such as Macbook, iPhone XR, apple stocks, iPad, etc., Google understands that your page is probably about the business.

Did you understand the difference?

In fact, search engines like Google simply search for keywords that frequently occur together because they share the exact same context (as shown in the two examples above).

What are the benefits of using LSI keywords?

Why target LSI keywords? What are the benefits of using them? Let's discuss it now.

• You can rank a single page for multiple keywords (with the help of LSI keywords).
• You no longer need to use keywords if you use semantically related keywords. You can still rank for a variety of keywords without keyword stuffing, which also provides a better reading experience for your audience.
• They help Google's search engine crawlers better understand your blog content.
• You can attract quality visitors from search engines by using the RIGHT kind of relevant keywords. This means that not only will you get targeted traffic, but also your sales will increase.
• You can rank higher than your competitors who only focus on keyword stuffing in their content rather than using semantic keywords.

Above all, they help you build credibility for your content, reduce the rebound rate and, ultimately, increase the time spent on your web pages.

How can LSI keywords improve your search engine rankings?

Previously, search engines used a concept called keyword density to determine the relevance of a page.

The major problem that arose later with this approach is this: the majority of bloggers used to stuff their web pages with their target keywords to get a first page ranking. Ultimately, this led to a poor user experience for researchers.

Here is an example of keyword stuffing.

As you can see above, there is no real value for people searching for “product marketing” information because the text is filled entirely with that particular keyword.

To remedy this problem, search engines have started to use smarter methods, such as LSI, to offer the best possible user experience. The LSI method helps search engines like Google better understand the context of a search query and the meaning of a page.

This is how it can rank similar and highly relevant pages because it improves the “relevance” between what people search for and what they find on Google.

How to find LSI keywords? 5 tools explained with tutorials

How to find LSI keywords? To find great semantic keywords, you need access to the right tools. There are plenty of free tools, from Google's autocomplete to the LSI Graph, to find related keywords.

We're going to talk about each of them so you can use the tool that fits your budget or your needs for doing LSI keyword research.

We are going to cover 5 tools for finding LSI keywords which are listed below.

• Semrush
• LSI Graph
• Google Autosuggest
• serpstat
• Ubersuggest

1. Using Semrush

Finding semantic keywords is easier when you have access to a comprehensive SEO tool like Semrush. It is easily the most used SEO tool by around 3 million people worldwide.

So let's first talk about how you can find latent semantic keywords with one of our favorite SEO tools called Semrush.

Step 1 : Enter a keyword of your choice on Semrush and it will give you a list of all keywords matching your phrase and related keywords in its amazing tool called “Keyword Magic Tool”.

Step 2: You will see a lot of LSI keywords with a decent KD (Keyword Difficulty) showing up. Besides, you can also search for keywords matching phrases, with their search volume, CPC, and competition.

The key to choosing better keywords is to focus on finding keywords with high CPC value and low KD (or search volume) to increase your keyword rankings with less effort. .

Step 3: The final step is to evaluate your keyword metrics by analyzing the competition and choosing the least competitive keywords to increase your search traffic and sales.

How much does the Semrush SEO tool cost?

Semrush offers the following 3 pricing options.

• PRO
• Guru
• Business

Let's talk briefly about each of them.

Semrush PRO: This is the Semrush starter plan which gives you almost all the features you need ranging from keyword research to site audits and it only costs you $119.95 per month. It offers the following limits with this plan.

• Results compared: 10,000
• Reports per day: 3000
• Projects: 5
• Keywords to follow: 500
• Pages to crawl: 100
• 50 profiles to watch and 10 profiles to publish
• Scheduled PDF reports: 5
• Cost: $119,95 per month

Semrush Guru: If you're looking for custom PDF reports, higher limits, and historical data, this plan is for you. You can get the following features for just $229.95 per month.

• Results compared: 30,000
• Reports per day: 5000
• Projects: 50
• Keywords to follow: 1500
• Pages to crawl: 300
• Social Media Profiles: 100 (for monitoring) and 30 for posting
• Scheduled PDF reports: 20
• Branded PDF reports
• Historical data
• Cost: $229,95 per month

Semrush Business: This is the advanced plan of Semrush and you can get access to exclusive features like higher limits, multi-user management and so on for $449.95 per month. Here are the limitations of this plan.

• Results compared: 50,000
• Reports per day: 10,000
• Projects: 200
• Keywords to follow: 5000
• Pages to crawl: 1
• Social media profiles: 300 for monitoring and 50 for posting
• Scheduled PDF reports: 50
• White label PDF reports
• Historical data
• Product Listing Ads
• Multi-user management
• Cost: $449.95 per month

2. Using the LSI chart

Now let's see how to use a free tool called LSI graph.

How do I use the LSI Graph Keyword Research Tool to find LSI keywords?

Step 1: Click on this link to visit the LSI Graph tool.

Step 2: Enter a keyword of your choice to find relevant keywords.

Step 3: That's it, now you can easily build a list of all useful semantic keywords and start using them in your content for better rankings (more on that later in the same article).

How much does it cost ?

The LSI Graph tool gives you free suggestions for certain limits every day. If you want unlimited keyword research, you should opt for their premium plans which start at $27 per month and get you various keyword metrics such as;

• Search volume
• CPC and competition
• Trendy
• Latent semantic value (LSV)
• Classification of subjects
• Content Analysis
• Search history, etc.

3. Use Google Autocomplete suggestions

One of the easiest ways to find those relevant keywords is to use Google AutoComplete, which is not only a free LSI keyword research tool, but also gives you many autocomplete suggestions that you can use to increase your search traffic.

Here is how to use it.

Simply enter a keyword of your choice into Google's search bar and Google will automatically start showing you all related keywords that you can use to drive more traffic from Google to your sites.

In the example above, you can see that for the keyword "travel plan", Google's autocomplete shows a ton of relevant keywords that you can use in your content or landing pages if you are dealing with a site that covers these keywords.

Besides Google's AutoComplete feature, you can also use another Google search feature called "Related Google Searches", which is normally found at the bottom of search result pages.

This is what it looks like;

In the illustration above, you can see that for the same keyword phrase, Google's related searches show a ton of useful and highly relevant keywords at the bottom of the search results page.

Similarly, you can use the two free Google tools mentioned above to find a variety of semantic keywords to increase your search traffic and website sales.

4. Using Serpstat

If you are looking for an affordable yet all-in-one SEO toolkit, Serpstat is for you as it offers you a wide range of tools to find the ultimate keywords that will allow you to outperform your competitors. .

Here is a step by step tutorial on how to use Serpstat to find semantic keywords.

Step 1: First of all. You must have access to this tool.

Step 2: Once you have created your account, go to their dashboard and enter any keyword of your choice in the “Related Keywords” tab which is under the “Keyword Research” section.

It also gives you keyword metrics like search volume, CPC, and PPC competition to filter your keyword campaigns.

Step 3: You can also click on related keywords above (individually) if you want even more detailed and comprehensive semantic keyword ideas for your target keyword phrase.

And There you go. This is how you can find a ton of semantic keywords using Serpstat

What is the price of the Serpstat SEO tool?

Serpstat offers 4 pricing plans: Lite, Standard, Advanced and Enterprise. You can find all pricing plans here along with their features.

Let's briefly discuss their basic plans so you can get an idea.

The Lite plan costs you $55,20/m and you get limits like 4 queries per day, 000 results per report, and 10 keywords tracked. You can audit up to 000 pages and this plan is suitable for beginner bloggers.

The standard plan costs $119,20/m with limits such as 4 queries per day, 000 results per report, cluster search and missing keywords, API access, and 30 keywords- keys tracked.

5.Ubersuggest

If you're looking for a free keyword research tool, Ubersuggest, run by Neil Patel, is the best tool for you. It is absolutely free and you can get as many keyword ideas as you want using this amazing tool.

Here's how to use Ubersuggest to find relevant semantic keywords for any search phrase.

Step 1: Go to the Ubersuggest tool and enter the keywords of your choice.

Step 2: Simply click on the Keyword Ideas section to find all relevant keywords for your target keyword phrase. The tool shows you all relevant keyword phrases.

Step 3: Choose your keywords selectively based on search volume and CPC. The Ubersuggest tool gives you keyword metrics like Monthly Search Volume, CPC, PD (Payout Difficulty), SD (SEO Difficulty) to evaluate keywords.

Be sure to find and target keywords with fewer searches and higher CPC for better results.

What is the cost of this tool?

The use of this tool is completely free. You can sign in with your Google Account if you want even better features.

The 2 BIG reasons why you're not ranking for a keyword

Have you ever wondered why I'm not getting first page results for the keywords I'm targeting, even after posting great content?

We have the answer for you. Here are the two main reasons why you are failing to rank for a keyword on Google.

Reason 1: You are competing with authority sites

Competing with authority sites that have more backlinks, better domain authority, and better site age can hurt you more than help you. Google trusts authority sites more than recently launched sites. This is why targeting highly competitive keywords does not help you rank on the first page of Google.

If you really want to get first page results for a keyword, choose less competitive keywords like 200-500 monthly search volume, low keyword difficulty score, not the other way around .

Reason 2: You always use the same keywords

Keyword stuffing is one of the biggest bad SEO practices that can penalize your site in Google search results. Yet, the majority of people (especially those new to SEO) rely on keyword stuffing to improve their rankings in search results.

What is keyword stuffing?

Keyword stuffing is an underground SEO strategy that involves using the same keyword over and over on your web page in order to achieve first-page rankings.

Gone are the days of Google prioritizing keyword-stuffed pages; today, Google no longer gives importance to these pages. In fact, your site will be penalized if you overdo it.

What else can you do then?

What else can you do besides keyword stuffing to get your keywords ranked higher in Google search results? The answer is: start using latent semantic keywords.

Here's a great video by Rand Fishkin that explains why using related topics can help improve your SEO.

How to use LSI keywords in your content for better ranking?

Your job isn't done when you find relevant keywords. In fact, your work begins when you are done with LSI keyword research. The next step, after keyword research, is to use those keywords in content to increase search traffic.

Here are some of the on-page SEO essentials where you need to insert your relevant keywords to get better SEO rankings.

Quick Note: be sure to insert your semantically relevant keywords in the following places when creating your blog content to quickly increase your search engine traffic.

Blog post title

Most people don't know the importance of title tags and often create titles without optimizing them for keywords, which is a big mistake. Since title tags are considered one of the main search engine ranking factors, you need to know how to optimize them without hurting your readership.

It's always best to find 3-5 title variations for every blog post you publish and you can use free tools like the Portent content generator if you want to come up with amazing title ideas just by inserting your main keyword .

Meta description

The meta description is what people read when looking for information in search engines. It usually appears under title tags in search results. Make sure to use at least one keyword (which is mostly an LSI keyword) to get better rankings. Don't over-optimize your site, make it as readable as possible.

H2, H3 tags

One of the most effective ways to optimize your page is to use as many subheadings as possible using H2, H3 tags and sprinkle them with relevant keywords (along with a variety of keyword phrases- keys). These H2 and H3 tags are heavily weighted in Google searches and they will also show up if they are well optimized for particular keywords.

Image alt tags

Google places as much importance on the alt tags of your images as it does on the keyword optimization of your content. Therefore, if you publish a blog post, be sure to include as many attractive images as possible (at least one per post) and use your main keyword in the image ALT tag to better optimize your content. .

Blog Post URL

Keep your URL structure and blog post URL short and sweet. Most importantly, your URL should contain an optimized keyword if you want to rank higher. Your URL is what appears both on your site and in search engine results, so the more you optimize it, the better results you will get.

Keyword density

Most experts say you don't have to worry about keyword density, but it does play a vital role. But don't overdo it: to play it safe, you can keep your keyword density below 1% (1 in 100 words with many LSI keyword variations, without using the same phrase keyword multiple times).

Links

Internal links help search engine crawlers crawl your pages deeply, which is good for SEO and indexing your site. So, whenever you publish a new blog post, be sure to add relevant links to your old blog posts.

Likewise, start linking to content from other bloggers that is very useful and relevant to your blog topic. Later, you can use the blogger outreach strategy to get inbound links, which is a great promotional tactic to get links, traffic, and build relationships.

Blog post length

The length of your content plays an important role. Take our own blog for example: we quadrupled our search traffic in the space of three years after publishing detailed content of more than 2 words.

If you want to rank for those semantically relevant keywords, start spending more time and money creating long, high-quality content (and you'll also find it easier to sprinkle those keywords if you write long content).

Here's a great video by Brian Dean on how to improve on-page SEO.

How to get more traffic to your old or dead content with LSI keywords?

Here are some action items that will help you drive traffic from search engines using relevant keywords.

Step 1: Identify low performing blog posts

Look for any pages such as blog posts and normal web pages that bring you less traffic or no traffic at all from search engines.

You can use tools like Google Analytics to easily find all the content on your blog that is not performing well. This way, you can easily find the best and worst performing content on your website.

Step 2: Start LSI Keyword Research for Low Performing Keywords

Once you're done researching your old blog posts that aren't sending you traffic from search engines, it's time to start LSI keyword research.

All you need to do is optimize each of your blog posts for a particular keyword, then start finding semantically relevant keywords around that keyword.

Step 3: Update your old articles with semantic keywords

Now is the time for you to start updating your old blog content with new semantically relevant latent keywords. The key here is to improve your overall content so that you can easily include a ton of useful and relevant keywords for get more traffic on search engines.

For example, if an old blog post (which doesn't even send you 10 visitors per month) contains 500 words and outdated information. You can either redirect it using 301 redirects to a very informative page on your blog, or start detailing it;

• Pictures
• More fresh content
• Best links (internal links)
• Better titles and page optimization, etc.

The key is to improve the general content of your old articles instead of stuffing them with relevant keywords.

Step 4: Create more inbound links (backlinks)

No matter how good your content or LSI keyword research is, it won't help you rank better in Google's search results if you don't have backlinks.

Did you know that almost all top 10 results for most keywords in all industries have at least one link pointing to the page? Yes, backlinks play a key role in getting higher rankings on Google.

One of the most popular link building tactics used by most SEO experts is to discover your competitors' sources of backlinks.

You can use tools like Semrush to easily find all your competitors backlink sources. According to SEO blogs like Moz, it has always been proven that there is a strong relationship between your Google rankings and links.

You just need to enter their URL and Semrush will automatically show you the backlink analysis of any website easily with the backlink sources (which websites they get links from).

This way, you can approach blog owners to build links for your site, whether by guest posting, contacting bloggers, using the skyscraper technique, etc. .

Step 5: Check the results

What good is doing LSI keyword research, creating in-depth content, and building backlinks if you're not tracking your SEO metrics? You'll never know how your website is doing in search engines like Google if you don't track a few important metrics, right?

Here are some of the important SEO metrics you need to watch out for;

• Ranking your keywords
• Your positions on keywords (down or up)
• Your search traffic for the keywords you are targeting

You can use tools like Semrush to easily monitor all the SEO metrics mentioned above or you can also use free tools like SERPS.com, RankTrackr, etc. to track your keyword rankings on Google.

How to create an LSI keyword strategy for better long-term results?

Now let's talk about the most essential thing: creating an LSI keyword strategy. This is what you need if you want to find better performing keywords to increase your search traffic and overall website sales. Here are some important tips you can use to build a solid keyword strategy to improve your SEO and build a profitable blog.

Understand the search intent of your target audience

Here is an example that will allow you to understand the search intentions of your target audience.

Search intent: “apple”

Matching LSI keywords:

• iTunes
• Apple store
• Apple iPhone etc.

Irrelevant semantic keywords:

• Microsoft
• Microsoft Downloads
• Microsoft update etc.

Always keep your primary keyword in mind before performing LSI keyword research.

It is unnecessary to do a keyword research LSI without targeting a main keyword of your choice. So get to know your primary keywords before you start finding LSI keywords to boost your organic traffic.

Do not insert your keywords into your content

Stop keyword stuffing. This is one of the bad SEO practices that can penalize your site in Google searches. Instead of stuffing your keywords, use them naturally and add as many long tail keywords as possible to improve your search engine rankings.

It is not necessary to use exact keywords

Most bloggers use the same keyword phrases they found by doing keyword research. This does not work well when it comes to optimizing your articles in a natural way.

You also don't have to use the exact same keywords. Google is smart enough to know what your content is about and gives you a higher ranking if your content is interesting.

How long does it usually take to get better results?

This is one of the most interesting questions most people have: how long does it actually take for LSI keywords to start sending you more visitors from search engines?

The answer is obvious: it depends on a lot of factors and not even SEO gurus can tell you the exact time and duration for a keyword to rank.

But here is a more detailed answer that will give you a better understanding of how things work.

It usually takes between 1 and 4 months to start getting traffic from search engines to the content to which you have added semantic keywords. It mainly depends on the competition and the difficulty of the keywords you are targeting.

The illustration above shows that getting the top three search results for a keyword takes an average of 100 days (3-4 months).

You will get faster results, i.e. more search engine traffic, if you target LSI keywords with lower monthly search volume (preferably 500 average monthly searches) and low difficulty of keywords (40 or less). You can determine the difficulty of keywords using tools like Ahrefs, Moz, Semrush, etc.

But if you are targeting less competitive keywords with a higher Keyword Difficulty Score, it will take longer, depending on the following;

• The number of backlinks you create to the page (blog post or landing page)
• The quality of your content (in general, long content over 2000 words ranks well in search engines).

And There you go. We can't really tell you how long it will take for search engine traffic to kick in. It all depends on important factors like your backlinks, content quality, keyword difficulty, etc.

FAQ

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Final Thoughts on Semantic Keywords

Finding semantically related keywords is the most effective way to naturally optimize your blog posts. Finding these keywords is not that difficult when you have access to the right tools like Semrush, LSI Graph, etc. Just make sure you find the tool that works best for you and stick with it.

LSI keywords are great for two reasons: they allow you to optimize your content for Google in a natural way and also help Google better understand your article content.

What do you think of semantic keywords? Do you have an LSI keyword research strategy? If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments.