Do LSI Articles Need Any Form Of Keyword Density

A question which I have been asked a good deal recently is whether LSI articles need any form of keyword density. Traditional SEO article writers used to use keyword density as the rule of thumb for creating search engine optimised articles and web content, with the main keyphrase being placed in key locations within the document text.
However this form of SEO marketing has been outdated for a long time now, with LSI the main buzzword for internet marketers and article service providers to keep in mind. But to answer this question properly I first need to dispel the myth that there is such a thing as an LSI article. Yes, of course you can have SEO articles, but strictly speaking I can’t accept the suggestion that LSI articles can be called such.
Search engine optimised articles make a great deal of sense, but LSI isn’t a method of writing, it’s a method of assessing the quality and relevance of writing.
Therefore to be on the right track today in terms of article marketing your SEO articles should be optimised for LSI if they are to be optimised for the search engines at all.
In other words effective SEO must imply that the text is optimised for Latent Semantic Indexing. But this opens another tin-coated steel airtight cylindrical container of non-arthropod invertebrate animals.
The problem lies in the fact that so many internet marketers misunderstand the idea of Latent Semantic Indexing. It is in fact very easy to understand, but I’m constantly astonished by the number of people making claims that LSI optimisation includes varying the keyphrase to include semantically identical keyphrases.
So, for example, many article service providers would suggest that if your main keyphrase is “red cups” you could boost your keyword density safely by interspersing variations of your keyphrase such as “maroon mugs”, “scarlet teacups” and such like. The problem is that this is an entirely incorrect understanding of how LSI works.
As far as Google’s LSI algorithms are concerned the words ‘red’, ‘scarlet’ and ‘maroon’ are all semantically identical, and are therefore treated as being identical. The same is true for ‘cup’, ‘mug’ and so forth. This means that if you’ve included your main keyphrase up to 2%, and each of your semantically identical keyphrases up to 2%, your total keyphrase density could be reaching 6% or more – marketing suicide!
If this isn’t LSI optimisation, what is? Basically the way in which Google’s algorithms work is by looking at the breadth of contextually relevant vocabulary included in an article or web page. The broader the range of vocabulary which relates to the subject, the more relevant the article, and the higher it is ranked in the SERPs.
So an article about bicycles isn’t going to be considered highly relevant to the subject if the only contextually relevant words are ‘bicycle’, ‘bike’ and ‘cycle’. Google’s LSI algorithms would consider that to be highly relevant to the subject of bicycles an article is likely to include words such as ‘ride’, ‘helmet’, fresh air’, ‘travel’, ‘exercise’ and such like.
Back to our original question then – should an article that is optimised for LSI in addition to traditional SEO techniques aim for a keyword density? In a short word – no. But then, no SEO article written today should be anyway. If you’re even thinking about calculating your keyword density then stop, delete your article immediately and start again. That’s the kind of SEO approach that was popular several years ago.
A well written LSI/SEO article today needs to include a broad range of subject relevant vocabulary, the main keyphrase in strategically vital locations (not the same as density), and of course needs to be relevant, engaging, easy to read, catching the attention of the reader.
It’s all too easy to focus on optimising for the search engines, but forget to optimise for real people too.
That’s really what Google’s LSI algorithms are trying to achieve. Write well, and use a wide range of relevant vocabulary and you’re likely to find both the search engines and real people rewarding you with more article reads, more traffic and more sales. If you use an SEO article service to create your content, and you’re wondering whether to ask for LSI articles or SEO articles, ask them what they think.
If they mention keyword density, run. If they misunderstand LSI optimisation, run. There are plenty of SEO article writers who do understand current SEO techniques, but find yourself working with an outdated article service and you could find your website sinking faster than an acrophobic concrete filled lead balloon.