Stompernet (using Leslie Rhode of “Dynamic Linking” fame) are making a big hoopla about whether or not Google uses Latent Semantic Indexing to determine search engine ranking positions in its search engine listings.
Interestingly, it seems that the waters are muddied by the fact that Leslie takes a “true” definition of LSI and applies it to Google. He says, “nope, Google don’t use LSI to determine rankings”. Which is fine, as far as it goes. But, most webmasters don’t use the “true” definition of LSI when they think about LSI. Instead, most webmasters consider LSI to be simply a case of using lots of synonyms and related phrases on the same page… what Dr Andy Williams calls “theming”. And, it most definitely is the case that Google likes to see lots of related words on your pages when you cover any given topic. For instance, it’s only by looking at the other words on your page, and links into it, that Google can determine that your page with the word “apple” is about the fruit, not the iPod company.
So, technically, Leslie is right. And, technically, Dr Andy is right.
To quote Dr Andy quoting an (unattributed) blog comment…
“Does Google use LSI according to Leslie’s definition? Nope, not a bit. Do they use LSI according to a webmaster definition? Yep, without a doubt. The only problem is, the webmaster definition is not true LSI”.
Top tip: one of the best ways to rank for long-tail searches without having to create individual pages and links, is to create one long, well-written article that covers all the long-tail phrases you want to rank for. One such page, with lots of inbound links, is much better than multiple pages with hardly any inbound links, each targetting individual phrases.
This is an attempt to create a controversy to draw attention.
Webmasters are quite clear that they need to work on variations of the words like “rank, ranking and ranked”, “apartment and apartments” as well as “apple and fruits” to indicate to Google that we are working on a natural write-up and not a spam piece.
/wave Arun.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope all’s well with you.
Neil.
hmm…this seems like an issue of semantics. The awesome thing about language is that is changes. Since the webmasters are the ones using the Latent Semantic Indexing term most frequently and we all use it to mean “themeing”(possibly a new term for it), LSI is evolving to take on the new meaning.
Superb Neil. I have been following the LSI discussion and am reasonably tech minded but not on the same par as Leslie, Dr. Andy and Rex Freiberger who also refuted Leslie’s LSI findings.
If we sweep all the convoluted extreme tech stuff under the carpet us ‘common’ folk only need to remember your spot on advice as given in your Top Tip.
Thanks,
Ade
I did a bit of testing of this myself the other day and found a few examples of what other people were calling semantic search. I wasn’t terribly impressed, except by the fact that Google is now answering questions such as “american GDP” with the answer pulled from a page. Meaning Google understands this is a question and can determine that the text on the page that is the answer. Pretty cool and I’d love to get more on how it’s doing this.
I think it is always hard to get your site ranked well.
You are right, Neil. Also, technically, Leslie is right. And, technically, Dr Andy is right. I am also right, too…
I think what’s most important is what works for YOU, according to what you have tested on YOUR sites.
Whilst I’m not sure that Google use LSI to determine rankings, you can bet your a** they’re using it to detect spam.