Latent Semantic Indexing, Internet Marketing’s Arsenal
When Google introduced Adsense, an innovative advertising and internet marketing program, it soon became apparent to tricksters that there was a lot of money to be made by fraudulent means by generating web-pages specifically designed to display Adsense ads, using template-based page generation software specifically designed for the purpose.
Content duplication was rife and those websites themselves were of little or no use to the visitor who was presented with nothing more than Adsense advertisements.
Keyword density has been the cornerstone of search engine optimization for many years. The two major factors influencing search engine placement were the use of keywords and in-links (back links). Latent semantic indexing was introduced in an attempt to improve the service offered by Google and other search engines, to check marketing malpractices, and to ensure that featured websites were indeed providing a useful service to those using Google’s search engine.
Since the introduction of latent semantic indexing, many sites have been de-listed by Google as being of little use to the visitor, and for using duplicate content. On such sites, a change of keyword was frequently the only difference between pages.
As a result, many internet marketers found their income slashed to almost zero overnight. Hence, this innovation has helped curb internet fraud and malpractice, although it is not entirely perfect in itself, as will be revealed in this story later.
Latent semantic indexing was initially used in Adsense to enable advertisements targeted to the theme of a webpage to appear on the page. The algorithm checks the wording on the page and determines the theme of the page.
It involves analysis of words used in natural language, and the synonyms and closely related words used when discussing the general theme of a page. This technique complements, rather than replaces, keyword analysis.
The only drawback is that since it is based on a mathematical set of rules, or algorithm, it is not perfect and can lead to results which are justifiable mathematically, but have no meaning in natural language; however, no longer will sites with ambiguous keywords be acceptable to search engines. The semantics of the page must make the meaning and topic of the page clear.
To conclude, the introduction of latent semantic indexing is good news for you as a website owner, since it tries to ensure that genuine visitors are mostly led to legitimate sites such as yours. While designing content, take care not only to maintain a reasonable density of the specific words being targeted, but also use related words and terms to define the overall theme of the page.
In the process, you will eliminate a lot of ambiguities, and safeguard yourself from the diversion of genuine traffic to other dubious websites.
Source: IMP