Optimizing keywords for SEO can be an enormously helpful practice when building your brand and increasing traffic for your site. However, as many SEO newbies may have discovered, there can be some quite confusing rules around how to optimize keywords and what actually works best.
How many keywords should you use for SEO? Do you get penalized for using too many SEO keywords? What are primary and secondary keywords?
Don’t worry – if these questions sound like yours, we’ll be covering all this in order to help you to build an on-page SEO keyword strategy that actually works for you.
Primary vs. Secondary Keywords
Primary and secondary keywords are really important when learning how many keywords you should use for SEO. They will help you to narrow down and focus your efforts, targeting the best keywords for you without overloading your content or keyword stuffing.
What Is A Primary Keyword?
A primary keyword (or target keyword) is the main focus of your page. It is the main or most important word or phrase that summarizes what your content is about.
For example, if you were writing an article about improving SEO, your primary keyword may be “how to improve SEO.” This is the main focus of your content and the most important phrase that sums up your page, making it the keyword you want to focus on when optimizing for SEO.
What Are Secondary Keywords?
Secondary keywords relate to or support the primary keywords. They include synonyms, subtopics, and long-tail variations.
So, if your primary keyword is “how to improve SEO”, some secondary keywords you might work with include “SEO best practices” or “how to rank higher on Google.”
As you can see, these keywords expand upon the original idea and target different but related phrases your potential customer base may be searching for. This way, you can broaden your net when building traffic while still supporting the main idea behind your content.
Why You Should Focus on One Primary Keyword
Focus on one primary keyword is important and can have a big impact on your content’s success. Here are some of the main reasons you should focus on one primary keyword.
Clarity and Focus
A single primary keyword can help make it clear to the customer and to search engines what your page’s topic is. Google values clear, focused content and it will allow search engines to get your content in front of the people who really need to see it.
Google Recognizes Keyword Variations
Google has the ability to rank for synonyms and similar variations to keywords and phrases. This means that, instead of trying to focus on including many different variations of the same keyword, you’re able to focus on just one, and Google will rank it for the variations as well as the original phrase.
The Importance of Secondary Keywords
Secondary keywords are at the center of the matter for figuring out how many keywords you should use for SEO rankings and how to decide which ones to use. Here’s why secondary keywords are so important to get right.
Why Secondary Keywords Are Essential
Secondary keywords allow you to cover a topic in full and make sure your content is comprehensive. Showing Google that your content is the most helpful and relevant to your chosen topic means that you are more likely to rank higher in a wider variety of search results.
How Secondary Keywords Help to Improve Content
Not only are secondary keywords great for broadening your rankings in search results, but they also have the potential to improve your content with the inclusion of subtopics. Google loves content that is informative, useful, and comprehensive. By including even more useful information on your chosen topic and expanding upon your original keyword focus, you can create content that Google and your readers will view as authoritative.
How Secondary Keywords Help Improve SEO Ranking
Conducting a content audit and using keywords that you have targeted in other posts can also help Google recognize your site as an authority in that topic, meaning it is more likely to rank you higher in search results.
Ultimately, ranking for a wider range of keywords can help you attract more traffic to your site by ranking for more search times. However, an enormous range of keywords is not always helpful and can lead to keyword stuffing.
What Is Keyword Stuffing?
Keyword stuffing is when content is filled with keywords to an unnatural extent, overusing them so that the page may rank higher in search results. This may include:
- Overusing the keyword repeatedly in a single sentence or paragraph.
- Using keywords that aren’t relevant to the content topic.
- Using white text on a white background so keywords are not visible but are still recognized by the algorithm.
While these may seem like clever tricks to get your page ranking, they can actually hurt your results. Google is now adept at recognizing these practices and can penalize your site for using them.
Not to mention, you’re making your site look disingenuous and of less value, which Google doesn’t like – and neither do your potential customers!
How Many Keywords Should I Use For SEO?
For best practice, you should use:
- 1 primary keyword
- 3-5 secondary keywords
Make sure to aim for natural placements of your keywords throughout. Your primary keyword should be used in your title and in the first 100 words of your article. Space your secondary keywords throughout, using them approximately 2-3 times.
Remember to prioritize readability. Google will rank natural-sounding content above content that has a large number of keywords stuffed in it.
The Best Advice for SEO Keyword Optimization
While there are some definite dos and don’t for SEO keyword optimization, hopefully now you can see that it’s actually quite simple. All you need is one primary keyword, and a few secondary keywords, and to sprinkle them naturally throughout.
The best advice for those wondering how many keywords they should use for SEO is to make sure not to overload content with them, and focus on optimizing for a few distinct but related words or phrases. Plus, remember – the best content is what serves your user experience best.
Why Should You Work With SEO Baguette?
Getting keyword SEO right can feel overwhelming, and it can be a steep learning curve in terms of getting things right for your business.
At SEO Baguette we offer tons of services that can help grow your blog – including SEO content writing. This way we can take the burden of keyword optimization off your hands and use our years of experience to write content that is optimized perfectly for you.
With this service, we can deliver a 30% increase in traffic in just 3 months, with content that incorporates the finer details of keyword SEO and uses it to get your business where you want it to be.
