Kaizen Internet Marketing Santa Barbara

What is Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) and why should I care?

Google and other search engines have been required to constantly improve their algorithms to provide relevant content to searches. No longer is it enough to have a certain percentage of a keyword phrase in your copy, or a certain number of inbound links in anchor text (all still important). Now, the Search Engines are looking to make sure there are plenty of related words in the copy to increase the quality of the search results.

LSI considers words that are not necessarily literally semantically related but that are used in the same context and is more like humans categorize and classify information. LSI knows to connect “Apple” both with “Oranges” and also with “Computer” as it is used in context in common speech.

LSI and The Fractal Connection

The 20th century Mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot used mathematical equations to produce images called fractals which map the probabilities of word occurrences in English. Interestingly, the way we use language and classify documents can be described by mathematical equations similar to those that describe other chaotic systems. Therefore the seemingly mathematical and abstract principles and concepts underlying LSI are surprisingly similar to how humans use words and organize documents.

Because of this, web content that performs well under LSI analysis is likely to be more thoughtfully written, higher quality content and not something a robotic word machine could crank out. What this means to our search engine optimization (SEO) efforts is that every word on the page and not just our chosen keyword is important. In fact, this very document is being written with this in mind, weaving in words we know are seen by Google as related so that this article will stand up well to semantic analysis (one of those related phrases).

Kaizen Marketing’s tagline is “the art and science of continual improvement” and fits in well with this discussion, as using LSI is both art and science working toward the continual improvement of our web page rankings. Used correctly, it can propel a simple web article or blog post into the top 10 Google results in a matter of hours, and I have done that many times recently. This very article is currently ranking at #4 for “latent semantic indexing seo” and #9 for “latent semantic indexing LSI”, within 24 hours using only this method and just a bit of social bookmarking.

How to improve SEO using LSI

By placing additional weight on related words in content, LSI has a net effect of lowering the value of pages which only match the specific term and do not back it up with related terms. In fact, some pages may have their rank lowered by being “over-optimized” for one particular phrase.

So, mix up your anchor text and keywords used. For example, if I were working on SEO terms, I would also use various anchor text combinations so that the linkage appears more natural.

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is good for the web searcher because they get more relevant, compelling content. It’s good for the search engines because it increases the quality of the content in their databases. And its good for your business because it ensures you’ll have content that drives more traffic to your site for more conversions and sales.

LSI Secret Weapon – NEW!

Kaizen Marketing uses a powerful software tool that combs through the top 10 Google results for any keyword phrase and produces a report showing the most common  2, 3 and 4 word phrases that are showing up on these top ranking pages. A new article or post written based on these phases can reach top rankings in a matter of hours. Allow us to help you achieve these results for your targeted phrase. We have made it very affordable for small businesses. And besides, you leaving money on the table by NOT getting your web page onto this valuable piece of commercial real estate. Contact us for a free eval of your site.

Where do I learn more? See technical doc here:
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), by Clara Yu, et al., National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education, January 1, 2002.

Tags: analysis, inbound links, latent semantic indexing, LSI, ranking, related words, SEO

Of course, web traffic is only the first step. Once someone lands on your site, you need to quickly communicate you core message and invite them to take action.

Legendary copywriter John Carlton points out the 3 basic elements every good sales page should have. Simply this:

1) Here’s what I have for you

2) Here’s how it will help you

3) Here’s what I want you to do next

And these are answering the basic questions that the readers are asking (these from Mark Joyner)

What is he selling?

What’s in it for me?

How much does it cost?

Can I trust him?

What’s next?

Let’s break it down a bit.

Here’s what I have: Don’t be shy about this one. Let folks know exactly what you are offering and include the price. If you know your market well, and you should, then this will seem like a no brainer: “Well, of course I need that solution to my problem.”

Here’s what it will do for you. This addresses the radio station we all listen to at some level: WIIFM: What’s in it for me. You need to get to the bottom of this one and not mess around on the surface as most advertising and marketing does. What core and essential benefit is your customer wanting that you can help him or her achieve? Forget the nifty details and features, go straight to the heart of core benefits. Features can come later. Speak not as a salesman pushing anything but as a trusted advisor offering help, from your core to theirs.

Here’s what I want you to do next: This is interestingly the part that most fail to do: ask for the sale, or opt-in or whatever you want them to do next. They are often looking for a clear call to action and many sites and sales materials do not provide it. If you have done your homework and have a solution to a pressing problem, then they will be ready to take action. Ask in a clear and unapologetic tone: buy now, click here to join our list, or whatever action you want them to take.

And for example, if you are reading this and have not taken advantage of our free site evaluation offer, then go now to our contact page and enter your information. We will return a 10 page report with valuable information about what your site is doing right and what it may be doing wrong, as far as SEO goes. If you are looking for more web traffic and increased sales, then this is the first step. Get  your free report now.

Tags: conversions, copyrighting, internet marketing, sales copy

Below is a short list of 3 ways Kaizen Marketing can help you get more traffic and sales to your website. Just provide short articles based on your top 10 keyword phrases and we will take it from there.

We can even write the articles for you if you do not have time or staff to help with this. Just provide us with an outline for topics and main points to include and we will do the research to flush it out into a 300-500 word article to submit to all the right places.

Here are 6 ways to generate more traffic to your site, whatever your product or service. As the economy poses challenges, the internet economy is apparently booming and now is the time to turn up the heat to generate more sales for your business.

1: Social Networking:  submit your site to top social networking sites like, Digg, Kaboodle, Propeller, StumbleUpon etc…….and get listed in Google right away, then again go back into the submitted social book marking sites and leave comments as well as voting on your site.

2: Web 2.0 Tools:  Add powerful Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, forums, geo-mapping, rating systems and RSS feeds easily. Set up satellite sites on Squidoo and WordPress linking to your main site and also ranking on their own.

3: One Way linking: One way linking will gradually increase the back links to your targeted website. We use Forum Posting, Blog Commenting and Squidoo commenting for top 100 Squidoo blogs for high quality website back links reliability.

4: Yahoo Answers: a community-driven knowledge market website launched by Yahoo! that allows users to both submit questions to be answered and answer asked questions from other users. As of December 2006, it had 60 million users and 65 million answers. A Yahoo account is all you need and we can help set one up and use your expertise to answer questions.

5: Feeds, pinging, syndicate:  We will feed your main blog or website into feed directories, you will get immediately feed index page within 24 hours and then we “ping” the main title, index url , keyword to boost position at Google.

6: FaceBook:  Face book is a social networking site that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet. You are creating own products and service leads for yourself. If you do not have a Facebook account, we will help you set one up and if you do, we’ll help you expand and use it correctly.

http://nicheforseo.com

Now it is the time to jump in and drive qualified traffic to your website, to increase sales and have more time to do whatever it is you most love to do.

Tags: niche marketing, search engine optimization, SEO, traffic, web 2.0

Search Engine Optimization: A Brief History of SEO

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of preparing a web page to encourage the search engines to rank it highly on their results pages for certain keywords. The front page of Google might be considered the most valuable piece of “commercial real estate” you could “own”. Some sites get hundreds of visitors PER DAY from organic (FREE) search listings. It can be easy or hard to get there, depending on the keyword phrase.

This process includes both on-page and off-page factors.  On-page SEO includes the title of the document, using heading tags, and using the keywords appropriately on the page. Off-page SEO mainly consists of pages that link to your site and the text they use to link to you, called anchor text.

There was a time not too long ago, when on-page optimization was the only thing that really mattered. A few years ago, all you had to do to get onto the first page of a search engine was repeatedly stuff your pages and meta tags full of the same keyword phrase.

The more times the phrase was repeated, the higher the page would appear.  But the search engines caught on to this game, and they had to take steps to counteract these effects.  They started penalizing sites that repeated keywords too often.  They began to ban sites that used “hidden” keywords, which was placing white text on a white background so search engines could see the text, but visitors couldn’t. The search engines had to take action, because their visitors were not getting the quality results they were looking for. The spiders had been basically tricked into sending more traffic to the wrong domain.

Search engines had been working harder and harder to counteract these measures, but for years, they weren’t very effective.  Once the search engines caught on to one trick, webmasters found another way to exploit the system.

Then Google developed a unique algorithm that virtually eliminated all of those on-page spam techniques.  They gave some weight to on-page factors, but they also included a new system that helped determine the importance of pages.

They decided that sites that were truly high quality would have a large number of sites linking back to them.  This system has come to be known as Google PageRank, or PR. Google itself has a PR 10 and new sites usually start with a  PR of 0. The higher the PR number a page has, the more important it’s believed to be.

Of course, PR itself also began to be abused.  People figured out that all they had to do to increase their PR in Google was to get thousands of links pointing to their site. They started spamming guestbooks, free-for-all link sites, and other low quality sites to get links.  Then Google changed their algorithms again to give less weight to links from low quality sites and more weight to higher quality sites.

Another big part of off-page optimization is the actual text that other websites use to link to you, known as anchor text. Anchor text is used to tell people what a particular site is about, but it also tells the search engines what the site is about.  If your site sells mens shoes, and you’re trying to optimize a page specifically for “mens shoes,” then you should have sites use that text to link to you as often as you can.

Backlinks are arguably more important than on-page optimization. Backlinks from sites that are in the same niche as your site are weighed especially well, especially if those links are on pages with high PR.

The more links from reputable sites that you can get, the better your page is likely to rank, especially if your on-page factors are also well-optimized. The best way to get backlinks is to use free Web 2.0 social sites such as Squidoo, Hubpages, WordPress, Wetpaint and many others who have high PR and pass on some of that authority to the subpage you can easily create.

Lastly, there’s a new kid on the block with the Google algorithm and it’s called Latent Semantic Indexing or LSI. Basically, LSI means that Google is looking at your on-page content AND the incoming links, not only in terms of your primary keyword phrase, but also taking into account the related or themed keywords that are associated with that phrase. Shoes would be related to clothing and socks, for example. There are ways to analyze the top ranking web pages to see what Google thinks the themed words are for those pages and create content based on those reports. An active blog site can have front page Google rankings within 20 minutes using this strategy and I have done that recently with a few keyword phrases. See my recent post on LSI.

Of course, all this takes time and the expertise to do the above tasks correctly. Most small business owners do not have the time to do this well and often rely on search engine optimization companies, many of whom are unscrupulous and still try to get by with the same old tricks that used to work but clearly do not now.

In contrast, Kaizen Marketing has the necessary skill and also high integrity to get your keywords to the front page of Google and others at an affordable fee structure. We will create an ongoing campaign suggested for 3-6 months minimum to get you top rankings and work to keep you there for an average of $100 per month per keyword phrase. We guarantee your satisfaction or your money back. We are based in Santa Barbara, California but serve companies nationwide.

Contact us, and we will offer you a free site evaluation based on your home page and the top 5 keywords you would like to rank on.  We will also offer a 30% discount off the keyword research report that is always our first step. We outsource to a service by SEO Research Labs, who provide a comprehensive report with a minimum of 300 keywords showing search volumes and those with few competitors (low hanging fruit). Contact us to begin now.

Tags: backlinks, keyword research, LSI, santa barbara, search engine optimization, SEO