As search engines use keywords when filtering results, it is very important to make sure that you know how to incorporate them into your content. It helps your content have a better chance of being found, ranked and indexed.
There are many ways on how to use keywords for SEO and here I have provided a quick and basic guide on how you can do it safely and in a correct way. Moreover, you can use this step-by-step process for any type of SEO content that you post.
So, let us first begin by knowing how many keyword types there are. The keyword hierarchy consists of 3 main types of keywords for SEO and they are:
Noticed how secondary and additional are plural, but primary is not. It is because there should only be one primary keyword in your article. It should also be the main focus and a source that drives your content forward.
The secondary keywords are slight variations of the primary keyword. Usually, your topic will have 3-6 talking points, so using the same number of secondary keywords is a sensible thing to do.
Any other related words that are spelled or phrased differently, but give the same meaning as primary and secondary, are the additional keywords. Typically, ‘Long-tail’ keywords fall under this category.
So, now coming to the main point, there should be about 3-10 keywords in your article depending on the length of the article. Breaking this down, there should be 1 primary keyword along with 1-4 secondary keywords and 1-5 additional ones.
Following this pattern gives you a better chance of starting to rank, and you can even re-optimize your content based on the current ranking.
Now, you might be thinking what happens if you use more than 10 keywords.
First of all, it is absurdly hard to naturally incorporate numerous keywords for SEO into writing. Secondly, assuming that your content is not extremely long or insanely short, it can come off as spammy.
Therefore, doing more than necessary can stick out like a sore thumb and can also hamper the readability of the article.
Talking about the appropriate number of times you should use keywords in your article; if you are writing a 1000-word article, inserting the primary keyword around 7-10 times is suitable. Or, more simply put, you should include the primary keyword at least once every 100-150 words.
However, your article should not consist of more secondary and additional keywords, as compared to primary keyword. Use about 25% less secondary keywords than the primary keyword and 25% less additional keywords than secondary keyword for SEO.
Now that we know how many keywords to use, it is also important to learn where to use them. There are certainly best practices and even rules for adding keywords to make your SEO efforts worthwhile.
Firstly, a meta description is a simple summary to describe about the content. Therefore, placing keywords in meta description helps search engines to filter your results better.
It is an often overlooked, yet a basic way of adding keywords for SEO.
I wonder if you noticed or not, I have specifically mentioned the SEO Title, not the title of the article. The SEO title or Meta Title Tag should include some important keywords.
The SEO title and the meta description are similar in a way that the users will see both of them in the SERPs when they search for a keyword phrase.
Keep the keyword in the title of your article, if possible. Since the title header is paired with meta description, having a keyword in the title is obliging as long as it is used naturally.
In case you cannot fit in the keyword in the title, use a variation while still hitting some main words from your keyword phrase.
It is a popular belief that search engines give preference to the first 200 of your content.
Moreover, it is the introductory part of the article and since most readers continue on in the article if the introduction is appealing, inserting keywords in there is a good ranking factor.
Never forget, the main thing to focus on while writing an article is the reader. And, a writer should never compromise the readers’ ability to be informed, enlightened and engaged by the content.
As today’s digital world is seemingly SEO centered, it can be extremely challenging to do that.
So, one of the best ways to write keywords more naturally is by using ‘Stop Words‘ in your article. These are the type of words that can be used within keyword phrases to make them appear more natural without hampering the ranking value.
The conclusion is just as important for keyword ranking as the introduction. Therefore, try including the primary keyword in the ending phases of your article.
Huge chunks of paragraph are intimidating and often skipped by the readers. Hence, using headings to break up the content allows you to visually move the readers to the important points.
From an SEO standpoint, heading are very significant in ranking. As the HTML tags that identify headings are also ranking signals for search engines, adding keywords in them may be the best way to rank for multiple keywords.
Moreover, the longer the content, the more headings you have – therefore, longer articles rank higher than the shorter ones.
Using keywords in anchor text links means there is more information regarding that word. So, does that really help your current article?
No, however, doing this helps the other pages in your website. This is known as creating internal links.
Using keywords in anchor links shows the search engines where the important articles for the exact keywords are.
Tip: Do not use the primary keyword or its variation in the anchor text that is linking to the other page. Doing this, tells the search engines to completely ignore the keyword in the current page and look for it on the linked page.
Using images in your content is a must. Images (as well as videos) and content are like a perfect marriage when it comes to giving a visual cue to the prospective clients or readers, thus increasing user engagement.
Moreover, using keywords in Image Alt-tags help to show the image during image searches. Consequently, leading the users to your content.
Try inserting your primary keyword in the main page URL of the your article. If you have followed all of the above mentioned steps and put the primary keyword in the article title as well; then primary keyword should already be in the URL.
However, if your title has a similar keyword to the primary one, you should tweak the page URL after the fact.
So, here is the summary of how to incorporate keywords into your content:
Sign up to stay updated with the latest insights, news, and more.