LSI Keywords: The Ultimate Guide To Finding & Using Them Effectively

LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords are words related to the target keyword. For example, for “credit cards,” LSI keywords might be “money,” “credit score,” and “interest rate.”

But today it’s more accurate to call these semantic keywords, which help search engines understand the context of your content.

Another example: Let’s say you created a page about “Peaches”

Google would look for associated words to help decide if the page was about:

So if we were optimsing for peaches the fruit, we would want to include LSI keywords that indicate that.

As an SEO, you can leverage this system to help improve your content’s relevancy and search visibility.

Are LSI Keywords Still Useful?

There are lots of debate about whether including LSI keywords in your content is still helpful.

LSI keywords are still part of my content creation process, and let me tell you one thing-

They certainly don’t hurt, and it doesn’t cost anything to do!

Every article on this blog was optimised to include LSI keywords, and you should be doing the same as well.

Granted, there are other on-page optimisation methods like like TFIDF (which I do immediately after publish), but LSI keywords are still inserted during the first draft.

How To Find LSI Keywords For Your Content

There are 2x free keyword research tools that you can use to help you find LSI keywords to include in your content.

The first one, is from Google themselves-

#1: Google

Head over to Google and enter the target search term you want to rank for.

Then scroll down to the “Searches Related To” section-

You can see you if were writing about “Green Coffee Beans” you might also want to include-

• Prices
• Organic information
• Side effects
• How to process them
• How to make Green Coffee

PRO TIP: If you want to earn some extra on page brownie points you can also scroll to the “People Also Ask” section-

And include those questions as headers with answers in an FAQ section of your content.

The main problem with Google’s tool though is they don’t return many ideas.

#2: LSIGraph

Is a free tool that shows you an expanded list of LSI keywords.

These are keywords associated with your topic which should fit into your content easily.

Put the main keyword for your content into the search bar:

Once entered hit the generate button and you’ll be greeted with a list of LSI Keywords.

They aren’t ranked in any (obvious) order. You’d have to run each of these keywords through Google’s Keyword Planner to find exact search volumes.

How To Use LSI Keywords In Your Content

So now you know what the LSI keywords are for your target keyword…

…We need to look at how you fit LSI keywords into your content.

I’m going to cover two topics:

If you’re brand new to keywords then I suggest you read both.

How To Naturally Use LSI Keywords In Your Writing

A lot the time, LSI keywords don’t read like words that can be used in a natural writing flow.

But making sure they fit in naturally is important.

You don’t just want to randomly drop a keyword into a sentence and hope nobody notices.

LSI keywords should occur naturally in your text and not look like they’ve just been shoved in with half a tub of Vaseline.

Your LSI Keywords can fit into:

Let’s take a look at an example together:

Imagine if our target keyword was “Home brewing starter kit”.

You could insert the LSI keywords like this-

See how natural these can feel? Not only that, but each of these points are helpful to the reader!

When used right:

LSI keywords sound natural and provide additional value to your content.

How To Place LSI Keywords In Your Content

Once you know how to add the LSI keywords to sentences naturally…

You can begin to place them throughout your content.

My mantra has always been  “Keep it simple stupid”   and that rule definitely applies here too.

Here are four simple and easy, yet effective ways to place LSI Keywords in your content-

You can use these in any combination, or apply all four.

Whichever you feel best suits your content and the audience you’re presenting it to.

Just stay focused on keeping things natural!

WARNING: there is one type of keyword that you shouldn’t use: the meta keywords.

Wrapping It Up

Knowing how LSI keywords work and how to use them is an SEO advantage.

And I make sure I add them to every new piece of content I produce (including this one).

It doesn’t cost anything to find LSI keywords and it doesn’t cost anything to integrate them either.

So why wouldn’t you take advantage of them?

If you add LSI keywords to your content and do a TFIDF analysis after publication, you will be in a much stronger position than most of your competition.

Assuming your are doing keyword research the right way anyway!