Benefits of LSI for SEO

SEO has been the mantra of success for many a websites until now. The formula has been tried and tested and it has worked as well. The results were pretty much based on keyword density rather than the context in which the keyword has been used. Hence it was necessary to identify all the keywords which had the same meaning which a user might look for. For example, a user looking for ‘red kitchen cabinets’ might look for ‘kitchen cabinets red’ ‘red colored cabinets’ and many more such keyword variations all of which mean the same for him. But for the search engine spider they are all different keywords.

LSI

Now we have a new method of SEO called Latent Semantic Indexing. LSI is based on identifying a group of keywords and the context in which it is used in the text. It creates a much more natural approach to search engines and results rather than the more mechanical approach which was common until now. If you look closely at a search results page you will find at least three to four sites that are loaded with keywords but do not have any relevant content in it. This can be avoided with LSI. Apart from the specific keyword, users will also find those sites which have relevant information.

The benefits

Now when you do an LSI based search on music, you will not only have the results with the word music. You can also find radio, mp3 and stuff like that. It incorporates methods like Single Variable decomposition and creating a database of relevant keywords. Also common stop words are eliminated. These new results based on recall, precision and ranking has surely revolutionized the way search engines function. It also means that a web developer has to make sure that each and every word on a page is important and not just the keywords.

LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) : The new face of search

Latent Semantic Indexing

How do you look up for information on the internet? You type in the words in a search box and wait for the information to come up. But if you go through the results in detail, you will find that after the first few results pages, the rest are all irrelevant to the term that you searched for.

This is the retrieval method that is popular the world over today but will be soon replaced by a highly sophisticated model called LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing).

LSI is a new concept based retrieval method which uses a term and document matrix to describe or bring out the occurrence of terms in various documents. The results have been known to be 30% more effective than any conventional form of search that has been used.

Why it works

The reason why LSI works can be attributed to a term called ‘Shared words’. If you are searching for the term ‘mobile phones’, you might miss out on the result pages which also have the words, ‘Cellular Phone, lightweight, camera phones, etc.

While the user may find these words alike, that’s not how a spider thinks. LSI eliminates this problem by searching according to the concept of a searched term rather than its presence in the result pages.

It eliminates a lot of hassles for both the searcher as well as the content provider who does not have to carefully craft out a database based on keywords.

How it works

Most LSI software uses a completely automated system that is called Singular Value Decomposition. By using this, it creates a semantic or concept space and then improves successful retrieval of data.

In simpler terms, an LSI based model will be able to identify that cellular phones and mobile phones and lightweight phones occur in the same context and hence the results will be much more detailed and relevant.

The rise of social bookmarking and tagging

Storing, classifying and sharing information has reached a new level altogether with social bookmarking.

Social bookmarking is a method in which internet users save links to web pages that can be shared publicly or privately with access limited only to a certain group or limited number of people.

The people can then view these bookmarks in a chronological order or via the tags that mark them. Ever since iList.com was started in 1996, there have been several social bookmarking networks on the internet that have risen and fallen.

These companies include Backflip, Blink, Clip2 etc. But it was more recently in 2004 that the term social bookmarking was coined and del.icio.us brought the concept of tagging into the World Wide Web. Since then social bookmarking has been on the rise.

Why it works

It works because it has several advantages when compared with the more traditional automated resource location software.

Search engine spiders for example, use algorithms to determine the meaning of a resource or a web page and then bring it up on the results page.

On the other hand, all tagging is done manually and hence can give much better and streamlined results. As a result you will find semantically classified tags in a social bookmarking system.

Also as a resource is bookmarked by more and more people, its popularity increases and the resource is then ranked by the system based on its utility.

So, the chances that the end user will benefit from it are much higher as compared to a conventional search engine ranking system which ranks pages according to the external links pointing towards it.

The flipside

On the other hand, social bookmarking and tagging has its own set of drawbacks as well. Since there is no fixed vocabulary or spelling checks, tags are found to have errors and unclear tags are common.

MatCutts White Hat SEO Tips for Bloggers

Matcutts, popularly know as Google SEO Guy , recently gave presentation on White Hat SEO Tips for Bloggers.

This video is currently available on Viddler, and also in my blog Google SEO Guy Videos Section

The Summary of things Highlighted in the video " White Hat SEO Tips for Bloggers."

• Use variation of the same keyword in the url, title and content separately
• Use dashes and underscores in the URLs to separate the words
• Name categories after the keywords that you are chasing
• Avoid .biz and .info type of domains
• Make a buzz on the net and Google will notice you

Lastly he concluded "“Selling links and buying links are against our guidelines, and we do take action on them”.

The 5 Advantages of Blogging from an organizational perspective

First we had the internet, and then emails conquered the world with their speed and convenience. Now, a new form of interactivity has taken over the World Wide Web and it is called blogging.

In simple terms, a blog is any website where entries are written in a chronological order. Most blogs are the blogger’s personal comments on topics like food, fashion or sex. But there are other blogs which keep you updated on the latest happenings around the world as well.

Blogging has now emerged from a platform of interactivity to a superb marketing tool and most corporate use it to their advantage. But what are the advantages of blogging?

Advantages of blogging

• You can entice customers into personal conversations and thereby get feedback, criticism and personal comments at a rate that’s peanuts as compared to traditional forms of market research.

• You have both consumers as well as citizens who are visiting your blog. It is a great platform to keep them well informed and updated about the company and its products.

• You will create a stronger rapport with your customers and will increase the brand loyalty. It’s the human side of the organization that the customers will interact with over here.

• The reactions of the readers to certain pieces on your company will be really interesting and so can their suggestions.

•As the writer becomes popular, so will the organization. It portrays the organization as having talent.

Its opinion that counts

There was a time when public relations were all about what the organization wanted to say. That was all that we heard. But now, there has been an explosion of opinion and that’s what blogging is all about. It’s the latest and the truest form of democracy at work.