Extinction is a natural part of Earth’s history, but the rate at which species are disappearing today is alarming. Recent studies suggest that there are around eight million species on Earth, with roughly 15,000 of them currently threatened with extinction. This situation begs the question: what are the implications of extinction, both past and present? In this article, we will explore the historical context of extinction, the causes behind it, and what can be done to combat this pressing issue.
What is Extinction?
Extinction occurs when a species no longer exists anywhere on Earth. This can happen for various reasons, including environmental changes, loss of habitat, or human activities. While extinction is a natural process that has been happening for millions of years, the current rate is concerning. The baseline extinction rate is estimated at about one species per million species per year; however, today’s extinction rate is hundreds, if not thousands, of times higher than this natural baseline.
The question arises: why are we witnessing such a drastic increase in extinction rates? The answer lies largely in human activities. From habitat destruction to climate change and pollution, our actions have far-reaching consequences on biodiversity. As stewards of the planet, it becomes imperative to understand the past to inform our present and future.
A Historical Perspective on Extinction
Throughout Earth’s history, there have been five major mass extinction events that have dramatically changed the course of life. Each event was unique in its causes and consequences:
Late Devonian Extinction (378 million years ago): This extinction predominantly affected marine species such as corals and brachiopods. Environmental factors like changes in sea levels and anoxic (oxygen-depleted) conditions in oceans played significant roles.
End Permian Extinction (252 million years ago): Often referred to as “The Great Dying,” this event is considered Earth’s largest extinction event, wiping out approximately 90% of marine species. Volcanic eruptions and resultant climate shifts are believed to have triggered this catastrophic decline.
Late Triassic Extinction (199 million years ago): This event saw the loss of various marine and terrestrial species, including sponges and early dinosaurs. It was likely caused by volcanic activity and climate change.
End-Cretaceous Extinction (66 million years ago): Marked by the demise of the dinosaurs, this event was precipitated by a large asteroid impact in present-day Mexico. This impact created drastic changes in climate and habitat, leading to significant species loss.
Recent Extinctions: More recently, human activities have caused the extinction of numerous species such as the passenger pigeon and the dodo bird. The last passenger pigeon, named Martha, died in 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden and was later donated to the Smithsonian Institution.
The Role of Humans in Modern Extinctions
The stark reality is that human activities have accelerated extinction rates beyond natural limits. Habitat destruction due to urban development, agriculture, and deforestation has drastically reduced living spaces for countless species. Additionally, pollution and climate change continue to alter environments, making it difficult for many species to adapt.
Examples of human-caused extinctions include:
Dodo Bird: Once found in Mauritius, this flightless bird was driven to extinction by hunting and introduced species.
Steller’s Sea Cow: Overhunted for its meat in the 18th century, this marine mammal vanished within 30 years of its discovery.
Thylacine: Also known as the Tasmanian tiger, this carnivorous marsupial was hunted to extinction in the early 20th century.
As we continue to catalog Earth’s biodiversity, scientists are racing against time to document species before they disappear forever. With modern technology, researchers can now better understand ecosystems and devise strategies to protect endangered species.
What Can Be Done?
Addressing the crisis of extinction requires collective action from individuals, communities, governments, and organizations. Here are some steps to consider:
Conservation Efforts: Joining or supporting conservation organizations can help protect habitats and endangered species. Initiatives like those led by the Smithsonian Institution aim to save wild tigers and other vulnerable animals from extinction.
Sustainable Practices: Adopting sustainable practices in daily life can make a difference. This includes reducing waste, conserving water, using renewable energy sources, and supporting eco-friendly products.
Education and Advocacy: Raising awareness about the importance of biodiversity and conservation can inspire others to take action. Engaging in discussions about environmental issues can lead to more informed choices among your peers.
Policy Change: Advocating for policies that protect natural habitats and regulate harmful practices can lead to significant improvements in conservation efforts.
Conclusion
Understanding the history of extinction offers crucial insights into our current predicament. The lessons learned from past events remind us that while extinction is a natural process, human actions have dramatically accelerated its rate. By recognizing our role in this crisis and taking proactive measures to protect endangered species and their habitats, we can work towards a more sustainable future for all life on Earth. Time is running out; let us act now before more species become mere footnotes in history.
Understand the various types of COVID-19 tests, including PCR and antigen tests.
This knowledge will assist you in selecting the appropriate test for your requirements.
When selecting a test, aim to choose a test that prioritizes accuracy and timing.
Consider whether you’ll need the results for travel or other time-sensitive needs.
Accessible COVID-19 tests through local health departments, pharmacies, or online retailers ensure the tests suit your needs.
Carefully follow instructions when using at-home tests to get accurate results and reduce the chance of mistakes.
Learn how to read your test results correctly to interpret what they mean for your health and safety.
If you test positive or have symptoms, follow appropriate next steps, including isolation and consulting a healthcare professional.
Testing is going to help keep us safe and healthy in this world.
While traditional lab tests have been around forever, there are at-home testing options you can check out.
The key is understanding the different tests offered.
From COVID-19 screenings to routine medical assessments, knowing your options helps you make informed decisions.
Using these tests effectively empowers you to take control of your health.
You’ll empower yourself to improve your well-being once you learn how to interpret the results.
Understanding Testing Types
Nucleic Acid Tests
Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) specifically target the genetic material of viruses. They can detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, quite accurately.
These tests, especially polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, are among the most precise and dependable ones. PCR tests amplify minuscule amounts of viral RNA. This allows for accurate detection even in the early stages of infection.
The general procedure is to take a sample – usually a nasal swab – and then analyze it in a lab.
You can typically expect results from NAAT within a few hours to a couple of days. It depends on the testing facility’s capacity.
Antigen Tests
Antigen tests diagnose active infections by looking for certain proteins produced by viruses.
One of the main advantages of antigen tests is their speed. You may even get results in only 15 to 30 minutes!
It’s also worth noting these tests can yield false negatives. This is particularly true of people with low viral loads or those in the early stages of infection.
Antigen tests are most effective in scenarios such as:
Screening asymptomatic individuals in high-risk settings.
Rapid testing during outbreak investigations.
Quick assessments before gatherings or events.
When to Get Tested
If people have symptoms such as fever, cough, or a loss of taste and smell, they should certainly get tested for COVID-19. Taking this step can protect themselves and those around them.
Testing is advised after exposure to known cases, ideally a few days after exposure. The timing of the test is also important for accurate results, particularly when symptoms start. If you test too early, you won’t be able to detect an infection.
To help determine the need for testing, consider this checklist:
Are you experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms?
Have you been in close contact with someone who tested positive?
Have you attended any high-risk events recently?
Selecting a COVID-19 Test
Testing Without Recent Infection
Here’s why you should test for COVID-19 even without recent symptoms or exposure.
Pre-travel testing requirements typically require a negative result from a test taken in a specified timeframe. That makes it safe for both the traveler and everyone else.
Routine testing is critical for high-risk patients. This includes people with underlying health conditions and those living in congregate settings. Regular testing intervals can catch infections early, which can reduce the risk of transmission. A recommended timeline might include testing every 1-2 weeks, depending on individual risk factors.
Testing After Recent Positive Result
If you’ve tested positive for COVID-19, wait to retake the test.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends waiting at least five days after a positive test. This minimizes the chance for false negatives.
Testing too early can give you a false negative, and you might isolate yourself for no reason. In the meantime, keep an eye on any symptoms; if they worsen or new ones appear, consult a medical professional.
A flowchart can help guide your decisions during this time. It lets you know what to do, depending on your health.
Testing Within 30 Days of First Positive
Testing within 30 days of a first positive result can be tricky. Reinfection can occur; lingering viral particles from the first infection can cause such symptoms. The difference between those two scenarios is important to know for reading results.
If you test positive again within this period, speak to medical professionals about your next steps.
If you test positive, remain in isolation. Monitor yourself and your symptoms to see if you need to seek medical help.
Testing 31-90 Days After First Positive
For those who tested positive 31-90 days prior, testing approaches will need to be tailored to those individuals. Lingering symptoms may stick around long after the initial infection, making it tricky to know what new test results mean.
Consulting healthcare providers is recommended for personalized recommendations based on symptomatology and overall health status.
Getting a timeline together for follow-up testing is hard, but it’s what needs to happen. This lets you track recovery progress and make sure you take any precautions while you do.
Accessing COVID-19 Tests
Purchase At-Home Tests
At-home COVID-19 tests have a lot of advantages, such as convenience and privacy.
Those tests allow people to assess themselves in comfort. This setup reduces travel and the chance of exposing others.
There’s a range of at-home tests on the market, from rapid antigen tests to PCR kits.
When purchasing at-home test kits, consider the following tips:
Ensure the test is cleared by the FDA for use.
Read reviews: Look for user feedback on reliability and ease of use.
Shop around to find competitive pricing without sacrificing quality.
To help you evaluate at-home test options, use this checklist:
Is the test FDA-approved?
Are there clear instructions included?
Does it provide accurate results based on user reviews?
Are repeat testing instructions provided for accuracy?
Visit Testing Centers
Going to a testing center is another good way to get your hands on COVID tests.
Upon arrival, it’s important to have any required identification and insurance information ready, as this can expedite the process.
Expect wait times to vary based on demand and location.
Before heading to a testing site, prepare the following items:
Identification (e.g., driver’s license or ID card)
Insurance information (if applicable)
A list of any symptoms you may be experiencing
Familiarizing yourself with what will happen will help ease any anxiety during your visit, so you can focus on getting tested quickly.
Obtain Free At-Home Tests
Some government programs provide free at-home COVID-19 tests to eligible people.
You can order these tests online or through local health departments, making them accessible to many communities.
To obtain free at-home tests, follow these steps:
Head over to the official government site or local health department page.
Complete any required forms for eligibility verification.
Submit your request for free tests.
Eligibility could vary depending on where you live and current public health initiatives, so it’s best to check local guidance.
Using At-Home Tests Effectively
Follow Instructions Carefully
Following the instructions included with at-home tests is important to ensure result accuracy.
You may make common mistakes (not following the timing or collecting the wrong sample, for example) that can give you an inaccurate result.
Always check the expiration dates on test kits before using them to ensure they’re still effective.
Here are critical steps to ensure proper testing:
Read all instructions thoroughly before starting.
Get your test area organized and ready.
Clean it and gather things up.
Follow the timing guidelines exactly, since rapid antigen tests usually deliver results within 15 to 20 minutes.
Make sure a line shows up underneath the “C” on the test result, which means the test is working.
Ensure Accurate Sample Collection
How you collect those samples makes all the difference.
When swabbing, consider how much sample you need. Compare it to the size of your pinkie finger’s tip.
Proper techniques include:
Swabbing both nostrils if necessary and if you go deep enough.
Minimize contamination by not touching non-sterile surfaces during collection.
To enhance your understanding, consider these best practices:
Use a gentle but firm motion while swabbing.
Store collected samples according to manufacturer guidelines until testing.
Store Tests Properly
The conditions under which at-home test kits are stored greatly affect their effectiveness.
Keep it away from extreme heat and humidity, which can affect the reliability of the test.
Common storage mistakes include:
Leaving them in direct sunlight or in a damp area.
Failing to keep tests sealed until use.
To help maintain optimal conditions, here’s a reminder checklist for storing tests safely:
Store in a cool, dry place away from sunlight.
Keep tests in their original packaging until you are ready to use them.
Interpreting Test Results
1. Respond to Positive Results
When you get a positive test result, it’s important to take action as soon as possible.
Start by notifying close contacts to help stop the spread.
Follow any isolation guidelines provided by health authorities to protect yourself and others.
Accessing medical care is key. Contact health care providers for guidance on what you can do next and what support resources are available.
Watch your symptoms closely after a positive test.
Common symptoms to watch for include:
Fever
Cough
Shortness of breath
Fatigue
Loss of taste or smell
These markers can help you gauge your condition and pursue additional medical advice if needed.
2. Understand Negative Results
A negative test result generally indicates the virus isn’t present at the time of testing.
False negatives are possible. This is particularly true if testing occurs too early or the sample collection process hasn’t been properly done.
You should still be careful about safety precautions after a negative result.
If you suspect exposure or continue experiencing symptoms, consider retesting after a few days.
Here’s a checklist for your next steps post-negative result:
Continue practicing social distancing.
Wear masks in crowded places.
Monitor for any new symptoms.
Stay informed about local health guidelines.
3. Consider Inconclusive Results
An inconclusive test result means that the test did not offer conclusive information about your status. This could happen if there’s an issue with the sample or the testing process itself.
If you get an inconclusive result, you should retest as soon as possible.
Speak with your healthcare provider for personalized advice specific to your situation. They can also suggest further testing or monitoring measures.
A flowchart can help you decide what to do if you get an inconclusive result. It spells out plainly whether you should retest or take other precautions.
Next Steps After Testing
Quarantine and Isolation Guidelines
This is why quarantine and isolation are critical steps in managing COVID-19.
Quarantine is for people who have been exposed to the virus but aren’t showing symptoms. Isolation is for those that have tested positive or are showing symptoms.
If you test positive, immediately isolate yourself. You need to do this for at least 10 days from when your symptoms started or from the date of your positive test if you have no symptoms.
Continue wearing a mask until you can get two negative antigen tests at least a day apart. If you’re still symptomatic, keep masking until Day 10.
Follow local health department recommendations for specific guidelines, as these can vary by location.
Activities to avoid during quarantine or isolation include:
Close contact with others
Attending public places
Sharing personal items
Engaging in group activities
Seeking Medical Advice
It’s crucial to consult healthcare providers after testing for personalized guidance. Share your test results with doctors, as this information may change your treatment options.
Prepare a list of questions to ask during consultations, such as:
What are my next steps based on my test results?
Should I undergo follow-up testing?
Are there certain treatments or medications I should try?
For the seekers of healthcare providers, valuable resources include local clinics, telehealth services, and community health centers.
Informing Close Contacts
Notifying close contacts after a positive test result is important for community safety.
Communicate effectively by explaining your situation clearly, suggesting they monitor their own health for symptoms.
Consider using a template like:
Hi [name], just wanted to let you know that I have tested positive for COVID-19.
Monitor your health and get tested if necessary.
This proactive approach protects those around them and prevents the virus from being spread further.
Conclusion
The role of testing in managing health, especially COVID-19, is important. Understand what kind of test options are available to you.
This will allow you to make decisions that keep both you and your community safe.
Letting you interpret the results correctly effectively uses at-home tests. That knowledge empowers you to take the right next steps, whether that means isolating or seeking further medical advice.
Staying up to date on testing options and practices will help keep you prepared to get through these tough times.
Share this information with others—I would like to see an educated community of concerned citizens.
For more tips on health and safety, read our other articles or subscribe!
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the different types of COVID-19 tests?
There are mainly three types: PCR tests, antigen tests, and antibody tests.
PCR tests are very accurate and are used for diagnosis, but antigen tests yield quick results.
Antibody tests confirm past infections and are not used to diagnose current infections.
How do I choose the right COVID-19 test?
Choose a test according to your requirements.
For travel or symptoms, a PCR test is best. If you need rapid or same-day results, go for an antigen test.
Ask a healthcare professional if you’re unsure which test to use.
Where can I access COVID-19 tests?
You can get COVID-19 tests at pharmacies, clinics, and hospitals. Many local health departments also offer testing sites.
Some offer free at-home testing kits but require online requests.
How do I use at-home COVID-19 tests effectively?
Follow the directions as closely as possible with the kit.
Be sure to collect samples properly and wait the recommended time for results.
Keep the test in a stable environment while processing it.
How do I interpret my COVID-19 test results?
Read the test instructions for specific interpretations of results.
A positive result typically means you’re infected, while a negative result means you’re not infected at the moment. False negatives can happen, so see a healthcare provider if you’re not sure.
What should I do after getting tested?
If positive, isolate and notify close contacts. Follow local health guidelines for quarantine.
If negative but symptomatic, retest or see a healthcare professional for advice.
Can I trust at-home COVID-19 tests?
Yes, if they are approved by health authorities such as the FDA.
Be sure to look for proper certification and read usage instructions carefully for accurate results.
If someone tells you that SEO is irrelevant or that an SEO person is nothing but a snake oil salesman, they may be on the wrong side of the revolution.
More than 90% of online experiences begin with a search. With nearly 4 billion Google users worldwide, what consumers want and how they search for information online varies greatly and constantly changes.
According to Google, its search engines see billions of searches daily, and 15% of those queries are ones they have not seen before. Therefore, it is apparent that Google’s biggest challenge is matching relevant content for each user.
Some food for thought:
“71% of Brits said that they found Google Search gave more relevant results than other search engines.“
Why do searchers flock to Google when there are many alternative search engines out there? To add to that fact, how does Google provide more relevant content as compared to other search engines?
Here’s how.
To recommend better content to their users, Google has continuously rolled out improvements to their ranking algorithm to improve the understanding of search intent and provide more predictability in how keywords match.
Google’s Commitment Towards Context
By introducing newer Google algorithms, Google has shown its dedication to bringing better results for its searchers by introducing RankBrain and Hummingbird to gauge the intent of search queries better. This was followed by Google rolling out the BERT update, which introduced a new algorithm that improved language understanding, particularly for more natural language/conversational queries.
Even in 2022, we see that Google continues to introduce new algorithms to fine-tune results provided to searchers.
You can see this through the introduction of the Google Helpful Content update, which brought a side-wide signal determining whether a website primarily has helpful content or the opposite. Once Google interprets your content, they will then downgrade websites that are merely designed to rank well on searches while promoting more helpful websites designed for humans above search engines.
Alongside the helpful content update, Google has already rolled out the September 2022 core update, which came immediately after the helpful content update. Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Liaison for Search, tweeted that the core update might further supplement the helpful content update by amplifying its effects.
But, without any concrete proof, it is best to take these statements with a pinch of salt.
Google also introduced its May 2022 Core Update. According to Google’s Public Liaison for Search, Danny Sullivan, he noted the core update would make changes to improve Search overall and keep pace with the changing nature of the web.
Google is introducing these updates for the sole purpose of improving search results for users. These updates aim to improve the search experience for users, providing more relevant, useful, and trustworthy information for searches.
These are just scratching the surface of how LSIGraph has adapted to updates by Google. If you want to learn more, you can always read up on beyond LSIGraph.
How Do These Updates Affect You?
First and foremost, if you have always created people-first content without engaging in any black hat SEOs. I’m sure you won’t be affected much by the updates.
However, do expect some volatility in your website’s traffic due to Google’s updates.
Generally, webmasters would suffer a drop in traffic to the website. Still, if you have consistently created helpful and authoritative content for your readers, the traffic will eventually bounce back, so there is nothing to worry about.
Conversely, if you have constantly been churning out content meant merely to rank on search engines, then you would be heavily affected by these updates, especially the helpful content update.
You can see the chatter from SEO forums of people voicing out that the update affects their site traffic.
How Can I Create High-Quality Contextual Content?
Avoid Keyword Stuffing
Every webmaster’s dream is to have their website gain massive visibility on SERP. However, one critical mistake to avoid is keyword stuffing.
So what is keyword stuffing? In a nutshell, keyword stuffing is a weak and lazy way for certain webmasters to bombard irrelevant keywords into their website or content inorganically to gain high visibility on SERP.
Have you ever been on the receiving end of such sentences?
“Contextual terms are essential for your content. Why are contextual terms so important? This is because contextual terms help you build context for your articles. Contextual terms are the next big thing in SEO, and you should add contextual terms for your content.”
Not only do these websites look unnatural to readers, but they also go against Google’s content guidelines. Keyword stuffing has the consequence of being a negative ranking factor on your website, which will cause your site to rank lower on SERP. It also makes your content seem unnatural to your readers — a total lose-lose for you.
To rank your SEO page, ensure that you adequately and naturally add your keywords to your content. Ensure that you pick keywords with high traffic and low keyword difficulty to achieve the best results for your content.
A good rule of thumb is to have your keyword appear once every 50 words within the content. However, it can seem more when including alternative texts, meta tags, titles, and other content.
Know Your Niche’s Intent
You must always have your audience in mind when creating optimized content. Hence, you must understand your audience’s search intent and why they use specific terms and phrases to find their content.
Intents are an excellent way for webmasters to understand their audience and align their website’s content strategy. It can be divided into transactional, navigational, local, and informational. It can be further subdivided into more specific intents, but let’s not dwell too much on that.
By knowing your audience’s intent, you could put your audience as your top priority and understand what motivates them to click and share content online.
Use that information to understand how your audience thinks and use that information to determine their values, dealbreakers, needs, frustrations, objectives, and pain points.
Once you thoroughly understand your audience, you can write the best content for your audience.
Provide Accurate Information
Writing good content shouldn’t be a herculean task, but a lot of webmasters fail to do so. Poor content is one of the top SEO killers in the industry, and if not properly checked, it can lead to the decline of a website’s SERP ranking.
Good content means that your content would be able to provide reliable information for your readers, establishing your website as an authoritative website.
If you have been in the SEO loop, you would have probably heard of Google E-A-T.
According to Google’s definition, E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. This definition comes from Google’s Search Quality Rater guidelines which outline the factors that Google uses to evaluate the overall quality of a web page.
How does Google determine E-A-T? This is determined through
First, the expertise of the creator of the Main Content,
Second, the authoritativeness of the creator of the Main Content, the Main Content itself, and the website
Third, the trustworthiness of the creator of the Main Content, the Main Content itself, and the website
To ensure that your content is always helpful to your readers and to improve your E-A-T SEO, you should always keep your content accurate and up to date. Unless the content on your site is about something that never changes, there’s a good chance that you have information or even links on your page that are either obsolete or outdated.
Keep your content up with the most accurate information. This is particularly important if you have pages that are time sensitive, such as news or medical information.
Additionally, Google loves expert content. Therefore, demonstrating that someone with credentials and qualifications creates your content would go a long way in Google’s eyes.
Suppose you do not have the necessary experience. In that case, you can increase the credibility of your website by working with contributors with substantial real-world experience and knowledge in that field/niche.
Research Your Competitors
Competitor research is one of the most important things you can do for your website. I know that stealing other people’s work is wrong, but to be the best, you must learn from the best.
If you want your website to be more visible and rank higher than others in your industry, you would need to critically analyze your website’s strengths and weaknesses while also staying ahead of the competition.
By analyzing your competitors, you can see what makes them as successful as they are today and find out why Google loves their content enough to rank them at the top.
Spend time uncovering your competitor’s strategy and create a comprehensive content marketing strategy. Add your own research, information, and expertise to those content to outrank the competition and promote your new content to a similar audience to your competitors targeted.
Building Contextually Sound Content With LSIGraph
Add Contextual Terms To Your Content
To ensure that LSIGraph continues to adapt to Google’s focus on context, LSIGraph has introduced new features to help you build more context for your content.
Based on LSIGraph’s latest round of research, the team found contextual terms to be more impactful in SERP rankings. Hence, we have made it the emphasis of our writer by restructuring the content score calculation to put more weight on contextual terms.
If you haven’t noticed just yet 😉, we have also remanded the semantic writer to content writer as we move from a semantic-based scoring system to a more contextual one that aligns with Google’s focus and our own research.
Contextual keywords help you build context around your target keyword and content. By adding contextual keywords, search engines are more likely to understand the contextual relevance of your page.
This results in your page having a higher chance to rank for queries you want to rank for, getting you the quality traffic that you’ve always dreamed of.
Create Content That Match User Search Intent
LSIGraph also has a new classification model. The LSIGraph team developed this new model to identify users’ intent to integrate with BERT. Whatever the user intent (informational, transactional, local, or navigational), LSIGraph will display your list of keywords along with their right intent.
Having every keyword accompanied by their specified intent takes all the guesswork out of your content strategy. You can create content corresponding to the searcher’s query to provide the most relevant information and facts they are looking for.
Let’s say that I am searching for information through the keyword “Best Smoked Brisket in Tennessee,” there is no point in creating a how-to page on making brisket. By understanding that this keyword brings about a local intent, you would know that the searcher doesn’t intend to smoke his own brisket but is in search of the best brisket in town.
Map Out Your Content Strategy
Great webmasters always know what’s next and what to write next. Is this because they are simply better at writing? Do they just have more experience in the field?
I’m here to tell you that while those play a part in how you brainstorm content for your website, there is another more important factor in creating a successful website: proper planning.
I can’t imagine an army general winning a battle simply by “winging it.” Great webmasters plan their content at least a few months in advance. They plan out content that drives profitable traffic for their site through in-depth research, careful planning, and developing a thorough SEO content strategy.
LSIGraph’s keyword mapper helps you cluster your keywords into content silos equipped with important information that you need for each keyword, such as intent, volume, and Opportunity Score.
Arrange your keywords into content silos by simply dragging and dropping keywords in your projects to set up the structure of your website and plan potential pages/content.
Map your keywords into main categories and sub-categories, and never miss out on a content opportunity again!
Secondly, you can now bolster the context of your content with topical clusters. LSIGraph has developed another algorithm that functions to pinpoint the entities that are within keywords. By pinpointing entities within keywords, LSIGraph will then create clusters of relevant keywords based on the identified keywords, which results in what we call topical clusters.
Content that uses keywords in these topical clusters tends to be viewed more positively by Google as it allows their algorithm to detect semantic relationships between different segments of your content, building more context.
Analyze Your Competitors
Too often, we are fixated on managing and creating content that we think would serve our readers the best. But if you fail to see what works and what doesn’t, then all your efforts will be for nothing. Hence, to create content that gains massive visibility and ranks well, competitor research is a must.
Have you ever tried analyzing top-ranking competitors with the SERP analyzer? Let me tell you that you are missing out if you have not.
The SERP analyzer breaks down top-ranking competitors to provide you with insights such as their word count, paragraphs, keyword density, page speed, readability, and more.
Skip all the hassle of visiting each competitor’s website individually. Save your time and effort on more profitable things.
With the SERP analyzer, you would also be able to access content briefs of your competitors, which are quick summaries of the HTML structure for each of the top-ranking pages.
Speed up your content optimization process by allowing you to study the structure of the top-ranking pages without having to visit each individual site. Clicking on the individual rows of SERP results will bring you to the in-depth content brief of the result.
Accurately Answer User Search Queries
As much as your readers love a well-written piece of content, they also want their questions to be answered. Hence, you should always strive to answer questions that searchers may be looking for.
According to experts, it is best to get to the point and answer your reader’s burning questions within the first few paragraphs of your content. This way, you can capture your reader’s attention by giving them the information they want to hear.
Only after answering their questions should you go into more detail and examples. Besides yielding SEO benefits, using this method means you will be placing your keyword in the first paragraph, thereby increasing your keyword prominence and making it easier to be found by the search.
Unsure of what questions to answer? LSIGraph’s content writer shows you popular questions that have been extracted from top-ranking pages to be included in your content.
Click on the popular questions tab in the Writer and find out all of your audience’s burning questions in an instant.
Link To The Right Content
SEOs are always talking about how essential it is to have a comprehensive backlink structure for your website. However, only some web pages have the privilege of being constantly linked, especially if you are just starting out in the industry.
Press releases may be a great alternative, but constantly relying on press releases is costly unless you find a newswire that gives you affordable plans with decent coverage.
How can you overcome this? One way is to ensure that you are producing original content that improves upon your competitor’s content. After which, you can use LSIGraph’s frequently linked tab, which shows pages that top-ranking pages are linking to.
By creating better content, you would put yourself as the top contender for these sites to link to as opposed to your competitors because of your superior content. Additionally, you can also boost your content’s authority by linking to those same pages.
Create SEO-Optimized Content
To have your page gain maximum visibility, you would not only need to optimize your page for your audience but also for search engines.
How can you optimize your content SEOs? I have just the solution for you.
You can now find out how to improve your content’s SEO with the content writer’s Dynamic Suggestions, which uses the top 10 results as a benchmark, analyzes your content, and provides you with all the suggestions and recommendations you need to leapfrog your competitors.
Additionally, LSIGraph’s content writer now has a content scoring system that updates in real time. As you write your content, the scoring will reflect how SEO-optimized your content is. Continue to improve your content using our suggestions and recommendations, and see your content score improve.
Keep improving your content until you’re satisfied with your content, post your content, and watch it soar to the top of SERP.
Conclusion
It is important to understand that writing great content requires a lot of research, planning before writing, and constant audit even after your content has been posted up. Ultimately, it is rewarding to do all these steps as your content will rank well on SERP, and your content will gain great visibility.
To make the content writing process easier, simpler, and time-saving, LSIGraph has numerous tools that you can use in the Content Writer, from the newly added contextual terms to SEO optimization suggestions for your content.
LSI Keywords has been a controversial topic over the last few years. To ensure that their content ranks high on Google, business owners, marketers, and SEO specialists are always on the lookout for Google’s ranking factors. So here comes the highly debated question:
“Are LSI Keywords one of Google’s ranking factors?”
This article seeks to answer this question and even more.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
What Are LSI Keywords?
What Problem Does LSI Keywords Solve?
How Do LSI Keywords Differentiate Polysemic Words and Synonyms?
Are LSI Keywords One of Google’s Ranking Factors?
The New Advanced LSI Keywords: Contextual Terms
How To Find LSI Keywords (Contextual Terms)
How To Use Contextual Terms
Does Contextual-Based SEO Work?
Summary
What Are LSI Keywords?
LSI keywords are words or phrases that are semantically related to the main keyword to supplement it with more context.
Developed in the 1980s, Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), also known as Latent Semantic Analysis, is a Natural Language Processing (NLP) technique that aims to better understand a search user’s intent when entering a query into the search engine.
For example, if your main keyword is “cake”, some LSI keywords would be batter, flour, butter, oven, and bake. These words help build the context around the word “cake” and show that it means the dessert you eat at birthday parties or weddings.
So what’s the importance of LSI and LSI keywords?
According to Google, it has indexed hundreds of billions of web pages. Out of these billions of possible pages, how do you think Google decides which specific ones to show you when you type something into its search engine?
The first thing that would probably come to mind is that after receiving your query, search engines look for pages that contain matching terms to the ones you used and chooses those specific pages. For example, if you type in the word “waffles”, you would think that search engines will return pages that contain the exact word you typed in (“waffles”), right?
Although it sounds like the most obvious method, it can be highly inaccurate. Many words have different meanings (polysemy), so matching literal terms has a risk of returning highly irrelevant pages to a search user. Additionally, different words can mean the same thing (synonymy), so only matching exact terms severely limits a search engine’s results to its users. Therefore, matching literal terms to a search user’s query proves to be insufficient and inaccurate.
A better, more intuitive way would be to retrieve information based on the conceptual relevance of a topic, which is what LSI tries to achieve. It does this by looking for the underlying (“Latent”) relationship between words (“Semantic”) to improve information retrieval (“Indexing”).
What Problem Does LSI Keywords Solve?
Ultimately, Google’s mission has always been the same: to match the best page to a search user’s query. In order to do this, Google needs to understand what exactly a search user means when they look up a word on the search engine. However, the complexity of the language construct poses many challenges for Google to achieve this.
One such challenge is when search users use polysemic words and synonyms in their queries.
For example, if I were to type in the word “date” on Google, how does it know whether I’m looking for today’s date, a romantic meeting with someone, or the fruit?
This is what we call polysemic words: words that have different meanings.
For example, the word ‘right’ could mean morally good, justified, or acceptable, or it could also mean the direction opposite left.
Likewise, the word ‘fan’ could refer to an apparatus with rotating blades that creates a current of air for cooling or ventilation, or a person who has a strong interest in or admiration for a particular person or thing.
On the other hand, synonyms are different words that mean the same thing.
Some examples of synonyms are easy and simple, big and huge, test and exam, etc.
A user could run a search for ‘computer’ using the terms ‘pc’ or ‘desktop’, or even ‘laptop’. A search engine that does not understand synonyms would consider those search terms independent of each other, and it would not return all the relevant results the user wants.
The same holds true for regional variations in the words used to describe the same thing. A US user looking for french fries would query ‘fries near my location’ while a UK user would search for ‘chips near my location’.
A competent search engine would have to understand that both users are probably looking for the same kind of food.
How Do LSI Keywords Distinguish Polysemic Words and Synonyms?
Latent semantic indexing (or latent semantic analysis) solves the issue of distinguishing polysemic words and synonyms using statistical methods. Latent semantic analysis analyzes the statistical co-occurrences of words that appear in proximity of each other in a set of documents to infer if they are contextually or semantically related to each other. This is what data scientists call Word Embedding in data science & Natural Language Processing.
In that sense, LSI keywords are keywords that are semantically or contextually related to the keyword you are targeting. For example, if your seed keyword is ‘car’, the corresponding LSI keywords would be ‘automobile’, ‘vehicle’, or even ‘cars’.
Some argue that LSI is not suitable for search engines because it was devised for smaller corpus of documents in the pre-internet era, and is impractical to be applied to such a vast amount of data as the world wide web. Although this is true from a search engine’s perspective, here’s why it is irrelevant: when doing SEO, we’re just looking for a particular keyword, which doesn’t have such a huge amount of data for analysis purposes.
When we’re dealing with specific keywords, we are dealing with only the Top 10-20 search results, which is why these very small sets of data makes LSI a wonderful technique for related keyword extractions.
Are LSI Keywords One of Google’s Ranking Factors?
Google has over 200 ranking factors — half of them are confirmed, while the other half… not so. One of those confirmed factors verified by Google themselves are none other than backlinks — this sent SEOs and website owners into a frenzy for the best website backlink checker they can get their hands on.
But the truth is, a lot of ranking factors are assumptions by the SEO community based on successful experiments and trustworthy rumors.
A few years ago, discussions were rife that Google uses latent semantic indexing in their search algorithm, and using LSI keywords in your content could improve your content’s ranking in the search results.
It makes sense to assume Google uses LSI in their search algorithm because it is imperative for them to be able to distinguish polysemic words and synonyms in order to accurately decipher their searcher’s intent.
However, in 2019, Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, poured cold water over the notion by confirming that Google does not use LSI keywords in their search engine.
On top of that, Google’s papers on their search algorithm made no mention of latent semantic indexing or latent semantic analysis, as with whitepapers from other search engines.
So, here comes the question again, “Are LSI Keywords one of Google’s ranking factors?”
The real answer? None of us will know (only Google knows) The likely answer? No… but also somehow yes.
To really answer this, we need to visit the development history of Natural Language Processing, NLP.
In simple terms, NLP is the process of teaching computers to understand human language.
One of the very first few techniques of NLP is Word Embedding, a form of word representation that allows words with similar meanings to be grouped “closer”. And LSI? It’s one of the pioneers of the Word Embedding technique back in the days.
Then in 2013, as researchers try to break through Word Embedding, Word Vector (Word2Vec) was born. Building upon the concept of Word Embedding, researcher Tomas Mikolov developed Word Vector to help computer understand languages faster.
And finally, in 2018, Word Vector further evolved into BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers). As opposed to the single-directional nature of Word Vector, BERT approaches NLP in a bidirectional way, which enables Google to understand search terms better the way a human does.
BERT takes into account other words in a search sentence and the relative location of the word in the sentence, to infer the context in which the words are being used, so it would more accurately reflect the searcher’s intent.
The model also classifies search terms into topical entities rather than sort each word independently. For example, the query “Bond” and “James Bond” are two different keywords, but they would be classified under the same entity.
By the end of 2020, Google started using BERT in almost every English-language query.
Considering this NLP development from Word Embedding, to Word Vector, and finally to BERT, we can say that no, Google probably doesn’t use LSI per se in their algorithm today.
But BERT that is highly popular among the SEOs today? Its history and roots go back to the basic, which is Word Embedding used by LSI.
A good analogy I would like to raise is a car engine. Rewind 30 years, and all car engines exist in the form of Gasoline engine; whereas today, they have evolved into advanced forms of engines like Plug-in Hybrid, Hydrogen Engine, and Pure EVs.
All these new engines are definitely better, but the plain old gasoline engine, despite being the older tech, still gets you from point A to point B.
And LSI? LSI is exactly like the gasoline engine; sure, it’s no longer the fanciest around, but it still does the job of building context for your content and move up the SERP ranking.
The New Advanced LSI Keywords: Contextual Terms
Just because Google does not use LSI keywords does not mean that LSI keywords are irrelevant in SEO.
On the contrary, now that Google is able to understand search terms the way humans do, using LSI and semantic keywords has never been more relevant. Having contextually and semantically related terms to your target keyword tells Google that your content is highly relevant.
It also renders your content much more appealing to human readers and by extension, Google’s BERT algorithm. Well-written content does not regurgitate the same keyword over and over again but peppers the article with contextual and related terms to make it more delightful to read.
In other words, your blog post about dogs will rank better in search results if it contains related keywords like breeds of dogs and dog-related peripherals like leashes or harnesses.
In an effort to keep up with the everchanging Google algorithm to understand search users’ intent and match the best content for them, we at LSIGraph will always update our algorithms accordingly.
The key idea is still the same: to reinforce content relevancy so that it matches a user’s search intent, consequently helping it rank higher on Google.
Keeping in mind that LSI is still a building block of today’s BERT, LSIGraph has further improved our algorithm to incorporate a BERT-integrated machine learning model to return our users contextual and semantic keywords that would increase their content’s relevancy to Google’s ranking algorithms.
This upgrades LSI keyword into its more advanced form, “Contextual Terms”.
How To Find LSI Keywords (Contextual Terms)
Now you might wonder: how do you look for these Contextual Terms to add to your content?
There are 3 ways to do it.
First, you could do it manually. You can type in a specific keyword of interest into Google and scour the Top 10 pages one by one. From there, you would need to extract words and phrases used by those pages that are semantically and contextually related to your chosen keyword. Also keep in mind that you’d need to take note of the usage frequency of these keywords as it helps you gauge the most popular ones to include in your own content.
This way is doable but might be tedious, time-consuming, and you might miss out on some keywords.
Another way is by using Google’s NLP API, an interface that shows you how search engines perceive and evaluate the quality of a piece of text. You would need to feed the API a piece of content (preferably from the Top 10), which it then uses machine learning to divide the content into four categories:
Entities: Entities categorizes specific words or phrases into different categories like location, consumer good, person, event, price, and more.
Sentiment: Sentiment analyzes the emotion of the content to determine whether it’s positive, negative, or neutral.
Syntax: Syntax analyzes the language structure of the content and provides linguistic insights.
Categories: This shows you the overall category the content falls under.
Google’s NLP API’s Syntax Analysis
Next, you would need to compile this information into a spreadsheet, and based on each of the four categories, decide on the keywords that are relevant to your niche, and that Google deems important.
The whole process is quite complicated, as Google’s NLP API is a complex tool, so there is a steep learning curve and you would need to spend days analyzing the data provided by the API.
The third, and easiest way, would be to use an SEO keyword research tool like LSIGraph. You would only need to input a seed keyword, which then returns a list of contextual terms you can add to your content to build relevancy. The best part? This process takes less than 10 seconds! You can skip all the hardwork and hassle, sit back, and just let LSIGraph do it for you.
How To Use Contextual Terms
Now that you have your contextual terms (either the easy way or long, winded way), here comes the next part: Placement and Frequency. How do you know where to place them in your content and just how many should you use? Does it even matter?
There used to be a time where randomly placing as much keywords as possible into your content would work. But that was the old days.
Now, Google is much, much smarter. Randomly placing keywords where they don’t belong and overstuffing your content with them won’t cut it anymore. In fact, you could even get penalized for doing this and risk being banned by Google.
Hence, you would need to place your contextual terms in your content strategically and optimally use it so as not to use too much to the point of overstuffing and not too little that even Google won’t know it’s even there.
Generally, you would want to intersperse Contextual Terms naturally throughout your content.
The best places to include them would be:
Headings
Meta description
Anchor texts
Image Title, File Name, and Alt Text
Content body (obviously)
At times, you might struggle trying to figure out how you can add these contextual terms in your content. This is where using LSIGraph comes in handy. By clicking on a particular contextual term, you’ll be shown some “Examples of Use”. These examples of use show you how the Top 10 pages are using the contextual terms in their content, so that you can gain some ideas on how to include them for your own.
Also, you can easily figure out how many times to use the contextual terms in your content so that it’s optimized. LSIGraph tells you how many times you’ve used a contextual term in your content so far, and how many times you should be using it.
The set of numbers show the usage vs. optimal frequency of a contextual term
LSIGraph takes out all the guesswork and tells you exactly where to place the contextual terms and how many times to use them so that your content is as highly optimized as possible.
Does Contextual-Based SEO Work?
Promising that something works isn’t nearly as convincing as showing that it works.
So, to answer the question as to whether contextual terms actually help in boosting a content’s SEO, let’s look at some data.
Three months ago, we published a new page about keyword research on LSIGraph. In case you don’t know, “keyword research” is a very, very competitive word.
It has the highest keyword difficulty, and a very low opportunity score (OS). This means it would be extremely difficult to rank for this keyword and see any traffic without extremely accurate optimization.
Keyword research’s high keyword difficulty
Of course, because we know LSIGraph works, we used our own tool to optimize the page to help it rank.
Previously, we used to only include more related keywords in our content to optimize our page. Although this strategy helped us rank for low-hanging fruit keywords, it barely did anything for the more competitive keywords.
So this time, we optimized our page by adding as many contextual terms as possible, according to the suggested frequencies. We also did some on-page optimization based on the suggestion list provided to boost our content score further so that it’s in the well-optimized range.
And the result?
In just three months’ time, our newly published page saw upward-trending traffic on Google Search Console.
Again, this is for an extremely difficulty keyword, so gaining any traffic is already a feat, let alone an upward-trending one!
In fact, we even ranked for a few other keywords related to “keyword research” that also had high keyword difficulty.
Circling back to the question “Does contextual-based SEO work?”, the answer is yes.
Based on the data from our own article, optimally adding contextual terms helped us gain exponential traffic for a highly competitive keyword, and as a cherry on top, for other high-difficulty keywords as well.
Summary
The easy, simple answer to the question, “Is LSI Keywords one of Google’s ranking factors?” would be no, it isn’t.
However, this doesn’t mean that it’s entirely insignificant.
Because LSI is a part of what eventually evolved into BERT that is ubiquitously used by Google today, it still has relevance in what helps a content rank.
Similarly to how the Word Embedding technique progressed to today’s BERT, LSIGraph has also evolved from using LSI keywords to something even better: Contextual Terms.
Not discarding totally the idea of LSI keywords, but instead building off of it, Contextual Terms help to build your content’s contextual relevancy so that when Google’s bots crawl it, it understands what your content is about and therefore ranks it for the right audience.
So instead of wasting time getting hung up about whether LSI keywords matter or not, we can focus on using Contextual Terms that has proven to bring actual results to the table. Of course, finding contextual terms is one task, but knowing how to use them is another.
To make your life just a tad easier, we would highly suggest you to use an SEO keyword research tool that does all the work for you. It needs to be able to effectively come up with these contextual terms and tell you the best way to use them for your content.
This tool in question? It’s staring at you right in your face – get LSIGraph today!
