Word stemming is a technique used in natural language processing to reduce words to their base or root form by removing affixes such as prefixes and suffixes. For example, the word "running" would be stemmed to "run." Word stemming is used to group together variations of a word so that they can be analyzed and processed as a single entity.
In SEO, word stemming is important because search engines use stemming algorithms to identify related keywords and to match user queries with relevant content. By using word stemming, search engines can identify variations of a keyword and display relevant results, even if the user did not use the exact keyword in their search query. This means that by including variations of a keyword in your content, you can increase the chances of your content being displayed in search results for related queries.
However, it's important to use word stemming carefully and not rely on it too heavily. While word stemming can help improve the relevance of your content, it can also result in irrelevant results if used incorrectly. It's important to balance the use of stemmed keywords with other relevant and natural language to ensure that your content is optimized for both search engines and human readers.