Thematic Search

Posted on July 5, 2006

Thematic search is finally here.

The SEO experts (those beloved geeks still working in the trenches and not the SEO experts that are involved in high profile marketing) - have been talking about this for well over a year now.

We all knew it was coming right? And we’ve all been making steady and consistent changes to the way we write and publish content, correct?

No, you say?

Well, I’ll let you in on my secret then, since (in this regard) you’re one of the underachievers in preparation for the new Google.

I haven’t done much to prepare either!

But we’ll be okay…here’s why:

The buzzword is Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), it’s the new part of both Google and AltaVista’s algorithm.

If you’ve been watching, your positioning in Google and AltaVista’s results have been ebbing and swaying as all this is sorted out. And even though new pages on your site might be indexed and included (and even get top ranks) you’ll find no google PR showing up in your browser’s toolbar (yet).

It boils down to this, and I’m trying to keep it simple because I know you don’t want to read a bunch of geek-speak and formulas…

  • LSI is similar to artificial intelligence.
  • LSI scans and evaluates your entire page looking for both the most relevant keywords for result positioning, as well as related keywords.
  • LSI also scans and assesses your entire site content for relevancy between the pages (your site’s overall theme).
  • LSI gives higher ranking to pages that have many words in common (i.e., semantically close), and lower ranking to pages with few words in common.

Top Tip for Pleasing the New Algorithm

When working on your website content write for your readers first and you’ll find that your page will naturally contain the synonyms, antonyms, variations, and other related words. You can later go back over the content and edit further for semantically related phrases.

Other Thematic Tips:

  • Instead of starting your page with your primary keyword, start with a modifier or non-keyword instead.
  • Practice keyword stemming. Plural, singular, prefixed and suffixed variations of your keyword.
  • Mix up your in-site navigational link text.
  • Keep your page content related to your site’s overall theme, but unique in content.
  • Use synonyms and antonyms and descriptive related text in your copy.

If you’re wondering how to uncover some of the semantic phrases for your future website content start first with your favorite keyword research tool. You’ll get back a list of related keyword phrases that contain your primary keyword.

For instance my standard keyword research results for ‘rustic lighting’ are:

  • rustic lighting fixture
  • rustic outdoor lighting
  • rustic bathroom lighting
  • rustic cabin lighting
  • rustic track lighting

Just remember standard keyword research is great for stemming and link text but will do you little good for modifiers or semantics. For those terms I head over to the free ‘cluster search’ tool at and find some thematic words I might include in my content:

The results give me some great ideas for semantic, modifier, or thematic words.

  • furniture
  • antler
  • lodge
  • log
  • free shipping
  • western
  • country
  • outdoor
  • ceiling
  • floor lamps

…all phrases served up by this MSN beta tool, but that I know both Google and AltaVista want to see on my site (if my entire site was about rustic lighting), or on my page (if my site was about decor and my page was about rustic lighting).

Now, this is why you and I are ’set’ for the changes over at Google and AltaVista

Because we’ve been writing to our readers in a manner that serves them. Our sites are themed on a broad topic and our pages are focused and unique on just one aspect of that topic. Given that, we shouldn’t lose our rank and positioning. But if you have lost some of your top results, it’s time to do a little semantic keyword research.

“The ultimate goal of LSI is to reward pages that are well written and that have genuine value to the searcher. With LSI, using a good keyword in the wrong context, will get you a lower relevance ranking. This means that site developers will no longer be able to score high search placements simply by loading sites with desirable keywords or a multitude of links.” –JOHN ALEXANDER, searchengineworkshops.com

Feel free to post any questions or comments about latent semantic indexing, search engine algorithms, thematic search, or keyword phrases below. I’ll do my best to answer in a way that makes sense, as will (I hope) other SEO experts who happen by here.

See you at the top of the search engines!

Laura Childs
www.smartzville.com

———-

p.s. John Alexander (quoted above) uses OptiRanker (click it to check it out) to grab his lists of supporting, descriptive words that a search engine believes are important to your primary keywords. The average search takes 3-5 minutes. OptiRanker is a paid monthly service at $49.95 and is not for the budget minded entrepreneur - of course this tool does much more than simply deliver semantic phrases.

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6 Replies to “Thematic Search”

  1. Deb on July 7th, 2006 3:18 pm

    Hi Laura,
    This comment is in regard to the announcement on your blog for “blogging with Word Press.”
    You mention that these are free. I checked out the site and it appears there is a cost, $297 life time or $27/mo. I’m wondering if I overlooked something and it is possible to have access free?
    Sounds like a great product.
    Thanks,
    Deb

  2. Smartzville on July 7th, 2006 3:52 pm

    Hi Deb:

    As an introduction to his video series, Sherman originally gave visitors the first 6 (or so) videos free. I believe he’s stopped that practice now and only sells memberships.

    Deb, in all honesty, and I’m not saying this because I love Sherman and his work, spend the $27 for a month’s membership. You’ll learn, in a few hours, what takes most WordPress bloggers months to understand.

    I’d love to gift you with access but they aren’t my videos to give away. The only videos on my site are how to set up a WordPress store using a merchant datafeed script.

    Click here to visit Sherman, you won’t be sorry.

    Laura Childs

  3. Smartzville on July 9th, 2006 8:53 pm

    Hmmm.

    A subscriber just sent me a note in reply to this post that said: “I’m unsubscribing, you got boring.”

    I had to laugh outloud!

    Although most business women with a list to share this knowledge with might have been mortified that they’d gotten ‘boring’ and weren’t serving their subscribers needs, it doesn’t bother me a bit.

    Why?

    Well if this subscriber thinks for a moment that this article is boring, that this knowledge won’t serve him to get piles of free search engine traffic, and that more information on the way won’t serve him - they by golly, he should unsubscribe! But he’s going to have to start paying for more and more of his traffic, or at least have to work 10 times harder to create the content that the search engines love.

    Friends who are reading this…take this article to heart and take a few extra minutes for each article you write, to ensure that your content contains the 2nd level keywords that will soon be required by all search engines for good positioning.

    I’m betting my online business on it. And if you’re serious about your work and income online, you will too.

    Here’s to being part-geek, part-marketer, a little dull, but with a whole pile of money to play with!

    Cheers!

    Laura Childs

  4. Dan McTaggart on July 12th, 2006 12:02 pm

    Anyone who says that Laura Childs is boring is only reading the icon text in their browser toolbar.

    Keep up the “excellent” work!

    Dan McTaggart

  5. Smartzville on July 12th, 2006 2:28 pm

    Thanks Dan, for that boost of social proof!

    I know my subscribers love me, otherwise they would have unsubscribed years ago…

    But it sure feels good to hear it!

    Laura

  6. Laura on August 16th, 2006 11:48 am

    More news on thematic search and latent semantic indexing by the search engines…

    Mike Grehan of Search Engine Watch states:

    “Latent Semantic Indexing is often misunderstood in its true purpose…Fundamentally, it operates at some level in a ranking algorithm to help alleviate issues with ranking pages purely by text pattern matching, by adding context.

    “Using statistical analysis, LSI can discover that documents have words which are often used in the same context. For example, “apple” and “computer” will also have “Mac OS” and are therefore also relevant. The same thing applies with “windows” as an operating system as opposed to an invention for looking through walls. It’s all about trying to understand more about the nature and intent of the user query and returning information in context with the user’s search, even when they give little clue as to the actual nature of the search.

    “Incidentally, LSI is used by other search engines besides Google.”

    There you have it folks! If you’re not thinking about this and implementing changes in your website NOW, you may be in for some tough work later on (that and a loss of income from your current sites).

    I don’t write about these things because I’m some kind of geek who takes pleasure in making online business and marketing difficult. I write these to help you keep your top place or obtain your rightful place in the search engines.

    Yours in online business,

    Laura Childs