The phrase “SEO keywords” might sound intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. A good SEO keyword strategy can help drive organic traffic to your site by putting your business site on Google’s first page.
In this guide, we’ll go over the critical places on your WordPress page to have relevant keywords and suggestions for site plugins that utilize SEO keywords.
Why are SEO Keywords Important?
First, it’s essential to understand the significance of SEO keywords. SEO keywords tell search engines about the content on your WordPress page so the search engine knows how to rank your page. A good ranking will help potential clients find you, building relationships and sparking business success.
Many people are under the misconception that SEO strategies are about gaming the algorithm, but it’s actually more about collaboration:
“Successful SEO is not about tricking Google. It’s about PARTNERING with Google to provide the best search results for Google’s users,” says Phil Frost, Co-Founder and CEO of Main Street ROI.
Adding SEO keywords is crucial because you want people who are interested in your business to be able to find it. Keyword rankings are also one of the most foolproof ways to measure your website’s success, which is all the more reason to up your SEO keyword density.
As a bonus, ensuring that your site is rife with relevant SEO keywords is totally free.
7 Important Places to Add SEO Keywords to WordPress and Your Content
Google indexes pages from top to bottom, meaning that some areas are more critical than others regarding keyword presence or density. Here are the essential places to add relevant SEO keywords to your WordPress page.
Web Page Title
Your web page title is prime real estate to add SEO keywords because it’s the first thing potential consumers will see. Because Google takes information toward the beginning as the most relevant, it’s a good idea to ensure you have at least a keyword or two toward the front of your title.
Meta Description
Meta descriptions are one of the most important places to add good SEO keywords. This is the information that the potential client reads about your website in the search engine results before they even click on it. Meta descriptions are also shared on social media when your site is linked, so keywords here are essential.
Pro Tip: Google recognizes synonyms as being related to your keywords, so they’re a great way to keep keyword density high while still sounding natural.
URLs
WordPress allows you to edit the portion of your URL after the domain name, also known as a “slug,” for each page. These slugs are great places to add relevant keywords. Covering one subject at length throughout a few pages shows your site’s credibility, which can help your SEO ranking.
Pro Tip: Try not to fill your website’s main URL with keywords, as SEO algorithms tend to rank lengthy URLs with lower scores than shorter ones. Be careful of unconventional domain names for the same reason.
Image Alt Text
Image alt text is crucial for indexing but an often-omitted place to add SEO keywords is in the alt text of pictures and graphics. Alt text shows search engine crawlers that the image is relevant to the web page they’re indexing, which helps contribute to a good search engine ranking.
Try to insert SEO keywords naturally while still describing the picture for the sake of screen readers.
Pro tip: While UX and UI don’t impact what kinds of keywords you’ll be using, they can be pivotal. SEO rank is affected by UX items, like site speed. Plus, good UI makes people want to stick around.
Meta Tags
One feature that makes WordPress exceptionally great at SEO is its ability to add meta tags to posts. Title and description tags won’t be visible to users but will be to search engines. Read more about making metadata work for you.
Headings: H1s, H2s, and H3s
Google looks at both page titles and headings so, naturally, they’re awesome places for keywords.
Having different pages on your WordPress for things gives you opportunities to include relevant keywords that may not fit the main page. Headings help break information down into smaller pieces, so your consumers don’t get overwhelmed.
Pro Tip: Subheadings are great for breaking up content that’s over 2,000 words for easier digestibility.
Text Body in Written Content
Written content like blogs, informative articles, and even review pages are great real estate when it comes to adding SEO keywords. Unlike the sections above, there’s no need for brevity, which means that you can talk about every facet of your business.
Blogging is a great way to incorporate more SEO keywords into your WordPress site. In addition to the SEO benefit, blog posts are great for keeping your page current and fresh.
On Landing Pages
One of the most important places to add keywords is on the landing page, as it’s the first thing indexed by search engines. Remember to keep keyword usage natural and try to keep them toward the beginning of the copy.
In addition to including SEO keywords, your landing page should quickly address your customer’s needs. There are lots of ways to strike a balance between good SEO practices and putting the customer first–for instance, check out these different options for optimizing a real estate landing page.
On AI Writing
AI content writing is all the rage right now, and we totally get it. An AI content generator can assist you if you’re stuck on how to phrase your keywords naturally in a text body. Just remember to edit before publishing anything the AI writes up–you can’t beat the human touch.
On Backlinks
Backlinks aren’t technically a place to put keywords, but they’re worth noting because they can play a big part in SEO optimization. Having relevant outgoing links and being backlinked by an authoritative source elevate your website’s credibility.
How to Add SEO Keywords with Plugins
To boost your SEO keyword count without compromising the integrity of your written content, use a plugin. Each plugin works a little bit differently, but all of our recommendations give content suggestions in addition to working on your site’s metadata.
SEO plugins take the guesswork out of trying to organize your metadata while also juggling keywords in your content that adhere to SEO best practices. In short, the plugins handle the technical side while you take charge of what your readers will see.
Without further ado, here are some of our favorite plugins.
Yoast
Yoast is by and large the most popular SEO plugin on WordPress. It houses many basic features on a seamless, easy-to-use interface, which is great for people who are new to SEO or WordPress.
Like most plugins, Yoast has a free tier as well as a few paid tiers that unlock different features, including the ability to have more than one focus keyword, and 24/7 live support.
To add a keyword to the Yoast plugin, simply type out the keyword or keyphrase into the “focus keyword” box. Yoast will analyze your content for keyword density and page readability and show you how to optimize your content for readers and search engine crawlers.
In addition to assisting you with content, Yoast works behind the scenes on your site’s metadata to give it the ideal structure for search engine indexing. This structuring works in tandem with your content edits to improve your search engine ranking.
Rank Math
Rank Math has a lot of useful features in its free tier, which is appealing to those who want to explore SEO strategies but don’t want to break the bank.
Rank Math, like Yoast, analyzes the content on your site and structures the metadata that only search engine crawlers see. Rank Math also has a module that allows you to track keyword rankings, which helps you measure your SEO progress in real time.
The paid tiers of Rank Math are more budget-friendly than Yoast, which is another reason this plugin is gaining popularity.
Adding keywords to pages on Rank Math is as easy as entering them into the “focus keyword” box on the lower right side. If you’re looking to add focus keywords on your homepage, go to the left menus and select “Titles & Meta,” followed by “Homepage.” Your screen should look like this:
From here, click on “Edit Page: Sample Page,” where the purple arrow is pointing.
Clicking this link will bring you to the standard WordPress editor, where you’ll find your focus keyword box on the lower right like usual:
Voila! Just like that, your homepage is ready to be SEO rated.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an advanced SEO tool that has its roots in backlinks, so they’ll have you covered on all sides. True to their origin, Ahrefs’ SEO plugin also has a comprehensive backlink checker, which makes it stand out against similar plugins.
Ahrefs works as a web crawler, which means that this plugin can offer insights into what web crawlers see when they index your page. From there, Ahrefs suggests optimizing your site’s visible and hidden content.
The Ahrefs SEO plugin has a selection in the top menu titled “Keyword Explorer.” From here, you can insert your keywords and obtain a comprehensive report on keyword difficulty, global search volume, and more. Ahrefs not only search Google for this keyword report, but also checks YouTube, Amazon, and other search engines like Bing.
Ahrefs is an excellent choice for people who want a superior amount of features and don’t mind spending a little bit of money to get them.
Final Thoughts
Once you’ve successfully mastered the art of keyword density, there are still lots of other SEO techniques to employ. The number of ways to boost SEO ranking can be overwhelming, so we’ve put together a checklist for you (and hey–you can cross any plugin you’ve downloaded off the list!)
Final, final thoughts: You are going to love our schema markup article where we guided you through how you can add structured data to your blogs and enhance your chances of being on the top of SERPs!
