Semantic Optimization of Keywords for Organic SEO

What does the word Optimization mean to you? Although personally, we may have differing opinions about what the term infers, knowing exactly what it means to search engines is essential for improving your organic website placement.

I have referenced this tip before in our search engine optimization strategy of the week, but it was something I wanted to touch upon again. Latent semantic indexing is a process that determines the way search engines associate words.

Instead of keyword stuffing (adding your keywords numerous times to inflate the importance of your pages) you can simply use alternative terms that describe the same concept and thus strengthen your foothold for all of the related terms that fall under the umbrella.

Understanding how to employ latent semantic indexing from a strategic prospective and using it in conjunction with long-tail search engine optimization, is an invaluable tool that provides keyword-rich suggestions for content, descriptions or titles for your website or blog. Essentially within a few minutes time using Google and by adding one character before a keyword, you can strike keyword gold and find a variety of keyword alternatives to enhance your rankings.

For example applying keyword research for the word “optimization” highlights the following associated words in bold. The associated terms discovered through latent semantic indexing in Google based on the seed word optimization were:

analysis
positioning | position
performance | perform
placement
submission | submit
speed
optimizing | optimize

Understanding this you could incorporate them into a sentence and place the sentence strategically on your pages in order to achieve stronger organic rankings for your keywords that you have clearly identified for that page. For example, based on the keywords above one could compile a sentence that would rank well in search engines and augment the term “optimization”. In this example, every keyword is used in some form, but used strategically. This is also a great way to look for terms for your tags when blogging.

Example: In order to optimize the performance of your website or blog’s position in search engines, analysis of the keywords you utilize can tremendously affect search engine placement.

Using this method for developing your content is completely ethical and naturally strengthens the content and word density without resorting to spamming the engines or affecting usability for your visitors.

So what is the magical grapheme symbol we have been discussing? It is the tilde ~.

Place the tilde in front of a keyword / search term in Google then hit return, the words you see bolded in the search results determine other known indexed words that correspond to your keyword for that search engine.

In this case I used the word

~optimization

So, the next time you are looking for alternatives for keywords for Ad Words, Blogs, Tags, Titles, Descriptions or content, Use the tilde before the search term and replacing the word optimization with whatever term you would like.

Or Stick Around and Read More Posts

23 Comments

  1. Gibson Petry
    Posted November 26, 2007 at 5:45 am | Permalink

    This is really very useful information for anyone.

    gibson petry

  2. DiscoStu
    Posted May 5, 2008 at 11:08 am | Permalink

    Great tip!! I use other tools to figure out what words are related, but this is straight from the horses mouth :) Does it work the same way for phrases?

  3. Jeffrey Smith
    Posted May 5, 2008 at 11:41 am | Permalink

    The ~ is a great indicator to at least let you know if your keywords are in the ballpark with how Google views related content. I use it frequently, but it is only one piece of the puzzle, but every piece helps.

  4. Savings
    Posted September 19, 2008 at 2:06 pm | Permalink

    Thanks for the article, This is exactly what I want to see from SEO companies,putting together something quiet different and more meaningful.

  5. Casino UK
    Posted November 7, 2008 at 3:06 pm | Permalink

    Very interesting, however I have a question. If you use the tilde on phrases, for example ~blue widgets, you get words related to both “blue” and “widgets”. So are these still seen a relevant terms to the phrase as a whole?

  6. website SEO
    Posted November 12, 2008 at 12:42 pm | Permalink

    Every key word has got an important information in SEO

  7. Ann H
    Posted November 30, 2008 at 8:50 pm | Permalink

    I am getting my websie going and read about the tilde trick. I went to Google Keyword Tool and tried. Did not accept my word with the tilde. Where should I be in Google to do this?

  8. Jeffrey Smith
    Posted November 30, 2008 at 9:50 pm | Permalink

    Hi Ann:

    No need to go to the Google keyword tool. Just use the ~ in front of a keyword in the main search box.

    for example ~optimization

    then hit return

  9. Aiko
    Posted December 6, 2008 at 5:50 am | Permalink

    HI…

    Frankly speaking, i don’t know how to use the ~ tilde symbol… :( Just put it at front of my keyword and… What do you mean by “return” button? If you mean the back button, so it takes me to the original google search box…

  10. Yellow SEO
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 6:18 pm | Permalink

    Relevant latent semantic indexing is very useful in improving Web site optimization Google ranking performance and Search Engine Positioning in the major search engines. Make sure to do a careful Analysis of the keywords placement also when writing SEO content in your web design.

  11. Jeffrey Smith
    Posted January 23, 2009 at 8:27 am | Permalink

    In addition, it is not just keyword placement and variety, it is context within the entire site. This is known as global keyword density, remember search engines read and they will discover the gist of what your site is really about.

    You don’t have to go for broke on every page, but it is important to have several pages on a particular topic to achieve the seal of approval (and raise your relevance score).

  12. mark waterfield
    Posted February 25, 2009 at 7:20 am | Permalink

    At the last the SOLUTION to making copy readable and not full of terrible repetition.
    THANK YOU

  13. Ashish Rawat
    Posted March 25, 2009 at 12:23 am | Permalink

    Hi,

    I Recently came across your blog through Google and found it to be informative and interesting. Thanks for your all the great information.

    Further, I request you to please send me the more about Semantic Optimization Technique. How can i rank high my web site in Search Engine using Semantic Optimization Technique. I Look forward to your Reply. My e-mail id is ashish@cyberphunkz.com

    Keep up the great work!!!!!!!!

  14. search engine optimization
    Posted May 8, 2009 at 2:28 am | Permalink

    SEO really helps raise business. The more advertisement or exposure to the company, the more the company will become popular from their products/services.

  15. Blog Marketer
    Posted June 28, 2009 at 8:46 am | Permalink

    Thank you for posting this. It is an excellent post.

  16. Brandon Hopkins
    Posted July 28, 2009 at 1:14 pm | Permalink

    Hey Jeffrey, just wanted to let you know that I really liked the article and recommended it to my 30 Day Niche Marketing Course subscribers. You’re the Day 10 featured “additional reading”!

  17. No Name
    Posted July 30, 2009 at 5:51 am | Permalink

    Thanks for this great post…

  18. Debt Relief Companies
    Posted December 22, 2009 at 9:08 pm | Permalink

    hm, sorry guys but maybe we are missing something, I have same question as Aiko.

  19. SubmitYOURArticle.com
    Posted October 11, 2010 at 1:26 am | Permalink

    Quite true,

    Keywords are valued differently. Though two terms have the same meaning, they still differ in the number of search volume and competition level. This makes keywords weigh differently and most people don’t know that. But if you know more about seo, you will have the headstart.

  20. Search engine optimization Vancouver
    Posted December 10, 2010 at 4:39 pm | Permalink

    I read your blog when I was in Quebec. I bookmarked your site and read your post again when I reached CA after I purchased my new ed online computer. The site is excellent and looks the best in new!

  21. Eunice
    Posted May 3, 2011 at 12:10 pm | Permalink

    It’s true that SEO helps a business grow. Nowadays, if a company does not have a website or an online store, the chance of its success is not much compared to a company with an established online market.

  22. Ralph Mulch
    Posted October 31, 2012 at 1:03 am | Permalink

    Great article. You made some useful points.

  23. Suresh Manian
    Posted January 26, 2013 at 12:08 pm | Permalink

    I think the simplest and most efficient is ‘semantic optimization’ of the search term. I do this by using a ‘follow the verb’ model and it seems to return more relevance.

18 Trackbacks

  1. [...] range of keywords to build links, now would be the time to reduce the repetition and focus on other semantically related variations using one overlapping word from the previous link building [...]

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  4. [...] (the prey is known to hang out by the water hole while traveling in large herds) translation for (latent semantic indexing) & LSI keyword roots – “once you optimize the root phrase, you can bag them all”. Now [...]

  5. [...] as opposed to helping them as spiders are smarter now and use semantic mapping of the pages LSI (latent semantic indexing) and other forms or word grouping and on page interpretation to get to the gist of a web page. If [...]

  6. [...] the architecture of the link structure, the anchor text (words in the link), keyword proximity and thematic semantics represent a large percentage of how your pages will fare in the [...]

  7. [...] the most relevance on the topic (the one on top) I would link to it from the other 10-15 pages with overlapping semantic variations of anchor text to emphasize relevance for the target flagship [...]

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  10. By Keyword Exercises for SEO | SEO Design Solutions on September 25, 2008 at 9:10 am

    [...] we are proposing is, since semantic phrases overlap and reinforce relevance, the idea is to use the additional keywords discovered from a [...]

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  13. [...] here is to look beyond keyword research and tap into the raw and latent potential of LSI (latent semantic indexing and phrase rank) within each of the pages in your [...]

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  15. [...] latched onto from search engines in broad match form when search engines troll the web using LSI (latent semantic indexing) looking for a suitable page to pull from the lottery of pages that have been earmarked as [...]

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  17. [...] in the LSI for a given term. Some are not. If anyone wants to learn more I suggest they read: http://www.seodesignsolutions.com/bl…r-organic-seo/ http://www.wilsonweb.com/seo/google-lsi.htm http://www.searchengineguide.com/mic…t-semantic.php [...]

  18. [...] hold a key to unlocking your websites latent ranking potential and when coupled with basic LSI (latent semantic indexing) and word stemming, it is possible to optimize a site for an entire market segment, not just a few [...]

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