I've been doing more and more research into SEO lately and came across something I thought you'd find interesting. One of the things I've been learning about is Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI). In a blog post about this subject by Aaron Wall of SEOBook.com, he wrote the following:

Quote:

Mix Your Anchor Text! Latent semantic indexing (or similar technologies) can also be used to look at the link profile of your website. If all your links are heavy in a few particular phrases and light on other similar phrases then your site may not rank as well.

I take everything I learn about SEO with a grain of salt because no one really understand how the algorithms work. However, Aaron is very well regarded in the field and his point is an interesting one.

It made me think a bit about potential ramifications for article marketing. For example, if you get to a point where you are doing some article marketing and seem to hit a wall and can't move any further up the rankings or if you notice you start sliding a bit down the rankings, could perhaps writing a new article or two using LSI keywords instead of your originally targeting keyword help your cause? Just a thought.

Adam
Words That Click
St. Louis Internet Marketing Consultant and Google AdWords Specialist

To start, I love what Aaron has done. I have his SEO Book and interviewed him on the Recognized Expert Marketing Show. He's the real deal.

It makes sense to me that LSI would play an important role in SEO. For example, if I wrote an article about snakes and linked back to a web page that did not use the word snake, Google is not going to find it to be a good match. On the other hand, if I linked back to a page that used the words python, boa, garden, coral, rattle etc., Google will use its LSI component to make the match without having to see the word snake.

I just watched a video that indicated that Google does not pay attention to LSI any longer. I don't believe it. Here's the video if you would like to watch it. It's very well done by the people at Stomper Net

http://www.stomperblog.com/a-top-ran...-in-your-site/

To answer your question, I personally believe that if you use specific keywords in the anchor text of your article and link back to a page that has those same words in the title, text, navigation etc., that is going to be more powerful than linking back to a page the only counts on using LSI keywords. My best guess is that using a combination of both is the best.

The Likeability Guy

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Hi Bob-

This is exactly why I take pretty much everything I hear about SEO with a grain of salt - ie. StomperNet says one thing that's contradicted by other SEO experts.

In any case, I completely agree with what you're saying as far as using a combination of keywords and LSI keywords. And, it seems to me, the bottom line with LSI on a web page is if you provide genuinely helpful content you can't help BUT include good LSI keywords (whether Google looks at it or not).

My question however, stemming from Aaron's comment, isn't so much about the landing page. It's about the anchor text in your articles. Aaron indicates that having too great a percentage of links that have the same keyword as the anchor text can work against you in SEO. Would that mean using an LSI keyword or two as the anchor text in your author block over the course of an article marketing campaign might be a productive strategy?

Thanks!
Adam
St. Louis Online Marketing Consultant and Google AdWords Specialist

Hi Adam

I would have to say "Yes" with one caveat. I would include the LSI keyword in my anchor text, but I would also include that exact LSI keyword in the text of my landing page. It may not be necessary, but if you can use the exact word in your text, I would suggest you use it.

If you think about it, Google is looking for "natural" links. It is not natural for every link that leads to your website to have the same keyword anchor text link. This is one of the problems with article marketing. You want to mix them up, but still have an anchor text link that makes sense for the landing page and for a term that you want to place for in Google.

Aloha, Bob
The Likeability Guy

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