A decent vocabulary is the key to profitable SEO (LSI and hitting the long tail)

Without getting drawn into the whole 'conventional SEO vs LSI' argument once again (read my post explaining what LSI is), it's easy to see why having a decent vocabulary is going to offer sizable SEO gains and there are two good reasons for this.

Having a decent vocabulary is an important factor for anyone attempting to 'make it big' as a blogger; not only does it allow you to convey your thoughts more accurately but it can tie in to two key SEO practices (as well as making your content more readable and adding authority to your words...). Before I start getting too cryptic, let me explain what I'm on about.

Increased vocabulary vs Keyword density
This is where I always get dragged into the 'conventional SEO vs LSI' debate. One of the most basic concepts of SEO is keyword density (how many times a specific keyword/phrase appears on a page), with the basic premise that the more times 'kitten' is on a page, the more likely the page is about 'kittens'. Therefore if someone searches for 'kitten hospital', your page that has 17 instances of 'kitten' might rank rather favourably. However, I'm favour a more keyword rich approach, using a lot of synonyms and varied language to convey my point - and that means I'm dancing the dance of LSI (latent semantic indexing).

LSI is an algorithm that is able to rank content based on how varied the use of language is around a specific keyword/keyphrase. The idea behind this is that one could game the search engines by abusing keyword density, but pages that rank highly under LSI should actually provide the user with decent levels of information. The premise for this is that pages with 'good' content should talk about the subject in a more rounded way than targetting specific words with ruthless commitment.

But if LSI isn't here yet, why should I care about my vocab?
True, LSI isn't really used much (if at all as far as I can tell) but I honestly believe it's coming soon and it is the future. So, not only would it get your content in ship-shape for when things finally start to change but it allows you to tie in to a vital part of conventional SEO - the long tail.

The long tail?
The long tail is something you're already using but you're not aware of it. Okay, so using my example above, you have a page about kittens and common illnesses. The most obvious search terms will be "kitten" but the long tail constitutes all the less obvious things that people actually search for, like "my kitten is ill" and "common kitten illnesses in Australia". These are real terms and while targetting a specific keyword can be pretty profitable, ensuring your content is keyword rich should ensure you more gains in the long run.

The long tail is more profitable because the obvious keywords are always really competitive, whereas the long tail is harder to predict.

Therefore it is my belief that if you write your content using a varied and interesting vocabulary, then your content will benefit in SEO terms. Keyword density is a thing of the past and while it may work very well for some people, the chances are that you'll want to rank for a particulary contested keyword and you won't have much chance of winning (unless you game the system like John Chow did with his 'make money online' effort).

Use your language well and your readers will like it more and the search engines should deliver more love your way.

Enjoy this article? Why not subscribe to the full RSS feed?