Lies, tapes and LSI …..

October 3rd, 2006

The concept of Latent symantic indexing has long been banded round the industry as the next big thing … however what is it and is it really relevant?

Mike Grehan from Clickz wrote a recent article exploring LSI and its impact on SEO/SEM. Is it really what a lot of “SEO” companies say it is, and should you really be factoring this into any SEO campaign.

Mike uses this example in his post
“SEMANTIC WEB VERSION II Google is coming up with Semantic web. Are you ranking well with this latest algorithm of search engines and will you continue to rank well?

Is you website LSI compliant?

Search Engines like Google (who are pallbearers for technology) are already reaching out for it by adopting LSI in their ranking algorithms.

We will check your website for its LSI algorithm readiness.”

As Mike goes on to explain, much of this is just marketing jargon. Rand Fishkin added the following

“LSI is a method for determining semantic relationships and in all honesty, while I do believe it’s critical for an SEO to be informed enough to explain the concept to a client, I don’t see a lot of practical use. With the advancement in search engine algorithms over the last 2-3 years (particularly at Google & Yahoo!), SEO has shifted away from manipulating language use and placement to building a savvy marketing”

My own opinion is that Search Engine Marketing as a whole is less reliant on language and instead relies on other aspects to compliment it such as traditional marketing theories and methodologies.

To read the full article, regarding LSI, click here

Entry Filed under: SEO Industry, News and Views, SEO