Google’s new technique of analyzing web pages has created a huge buzz in the web circle. Yes, the latest latent semantic indexing (LSI) technique has greatly changed the course of web network.

Common men cannot comprehend the intricate concept of LSI method. Even mathematicians find it extremely difficult to give an easy explanation of this new technique. However, it is more desirable to state the LSI method in easy terms and ensure quick understanding.

But, before we delve into the subject, it will be wise to know what is semantics all about. Generally speaking, semantics is the study of the meaning of words, symbols, signs etc. In the web world too, a new semantic web has been developed. Various semantics of services and information on the web has been clearly explained. It has facilitated the web to decipher and fulfill the requests of machines, web visitors and ensures effective use of the web content.

What is Latent Semantic Indexing?

In simple words, Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is the means by which the search engines attempt to associate various terms with a concept in a web page. In fact, the latent semantic analysis helps the search engines to discover everything about a web page. For instance, the words ‘web design’ and ‘web graphic design’ are associated with ‘ website design’. Here, the search engines can easily understand the semantic relationship among the words and get an idea that the web page is about web design.

Why LSI?

In the past, SEO experts were obsessed with stuffing too many keywords in a web page to ensure high page ranking. A keyword or key phrase was repeated many times in a web page. This black hat SEO technique pushed up the ranking of many websites.

In order to overcome spamming on the web, Google adopted the LSI technique to its indexing algorithm. The latest latent semantic indexing has proved to be a very fruitful way to display accurate search results.

Usually, the search engines faced difficulty in displaying results according to the queries of the visitors. Search engines do not retrieve information if the searched terms are missing from the query. Use of synonyms in queries also creates confusion to the search engines to display accurate number of results. Again, the problem of polysemy has led to retrieval of irrelevant information by the search engines. Here, the LSI method helps the search engines to think like a human and determine the meaning of the words in a web page.

How LSI Works

Now, the search engines work intelligently with the aid of LSI system. The web robots can easily decipher co-occurrence of words and phrases, associate and relate the meaning of it in a web page.

Normally, the search engines differentiate between synonyms or two words, which are somewhat closely related to one another. The LSI method helps the search engines to understand the semantic relationship between the words. The following example will clearly demonstrate the workings of the Latent Semantic Indexing.

(Source- http://www.seomoz.org/img/upload/co-occurence-calculation.gif)

Writing Effective Web Content

It is important to consider certain things to make your website content more search engine and user friendly. The content of a website plays a decisive role in the search engine ranking system and garnering more traffic

1. Have a through understanding of the semantic web
2. Systematically target a large number of words for a web page
3. Use keywords as well as synonyms and other semantically related words in the web content
4. Do not use a single keyword or phrase
5. Avoid repetition of words

So, that’s all about Google’s latent semantic indexing in a nutshell. Understand the nuts and bolts of latent semantic indexing and improve your search engine rankings.