Latent Semantic Indexing & Real Time Search to decide the success of SEO.

The concept of organic Search or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as it is known arose after the birth of Google in the late 90s. Businessmen & advertisers realized that there did exist one of the most cost-effective methods to promote their business & propel it to a higher level. Webmasters realized the importance of attaining higher ranks in Search Engines for the most relevant keywords to their businesses as it brought increased traffic & also led to higher visibility of their pages.

Initially, the emphasis was mainly laid on keywords, html tags, titles, and other on-site factors, which got higher rankings easily. Once Search Engines realized what was happening they changed their algorithms. More emphasis was then laid on content optimization & user friendliness. So again people started competing with each other on the same criteria, this time the spotlight being on technical issues like having flash & hardcoded JavaScript links replaced by XML files, which is considered more Search Friendly. The current trend at Google is to favour websites built around themes instead of keywords. Latent semantic Indexing or LSI, as this process is called, is at the forefront of search engine optimization and will be for the foreseeable future.

So what exactly is Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)? On technical SEO grounds it could be defined as the process of retrieving relevant pages by matching the terms of a search query with the same text found in all web pages. So even though "Dog" & "Puppy" mean the same thing, a page containing more instances of either of them will rank better when one of the mentioned terms is searched for in Google. The very reason Google is looking forward to implement this as its major ranking criteria is because there are many ways for a user to express a given concept using different words (synonyms) and also because most words have multiple meanings (polysemy). In either case, the chances of producing accurate/relevant results appear bleak. It is suggested that in the near future if one looks for cementing their presence in the SERP's, concentrating on LSI techniques would be more profitable instead of other tried & tested methods that continue to be proven futile.

Real time Search is an option that Google is looking ahead to in order to provide the user with most accurate & latest news on the product being searched for. Also with Social Media Marketing as an emerging platform to market & brand build your products it wouldn't be long when you would have run of the mill results (dynamically configured URLs) being displayed in the listings instead of actual landing pages. Hence it is essential to have a blog and a RSS feed tagged to it. Also e-marketers must look to off-page optimization (Linking & promotions), to spread brand awareness & increase your page views, so that when your domain attains a considerable age Google will not find it difficult to display it in their Search Results.