Keywords are one of the most foundational parts of SEO.
But if you don’t know how to use them, you aren’t likely to appear prominently in search results or attract users to your site.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to use keywords for SEO to help you amplify your search presence.
What Are Keywords?
Keywords are search queries users type into Google (or another search engine) and represent opportunities for you to appear in results when you have relevant content on your website.
We often talk about keywords in three main categories based on the content’s focus:
- Primary keywords: The search phrase a webpage is targeting. It’s the main topic of the page. An article about making a smoothie bowl could target the primary keyword “how to make a smoothie bowl.”
- Secondary keywords: Synonyms or long-tail variants (more specific terms that tend to be longer) of the primary keyword. Typically, the search results for secondary keywords are very similar to the primary keyword because the searchers are looking for similar answers.
- Semantic keywords: Terms related to the main topic of your webpage. If you’re targeting the primary keyword “how to make a smoothie bowl,” you could include semantic keywords such as “blender” and “frozen fruit.”
Why Is It Important to Use Keywords?
Learning how to use keywords for SEO is important because search engines scan your content for those terms to decide if it’s relevant to a specific query.
Let’s say you sell smoothie kits.
It’s a good idea for your corresponding product page to mention this phrase. To make it more likely for Google to rank (position) your page highly in search results for this keyword.
This is important for attracting visitors to your website.
Users rarely look beyond the first page of search results. Because they can typically find what they need in the first couple of results.
For example, the first organic results on desktop and mobile have an average click-through rate of 22%. The second position sees considerably lower numbers—9% on desktop and 13% on mobile.
But your page shouldn’t just mention this primary keyword. It should also include secondary keywords, so you can rank for more search terms without publishing additional webpages.
Semantic keywords are also helpful because they signal to search engines that you’ve comprehensively covered a topic.
How to Find the Right Keywords
To find terms to use on your site, you need to do keyword research. It’s a process that involves finding which queries your target audience is searching for.
While you can do this manually, the most efficient way to find relevant and valuable search phrases is to use a keyword research tool. These tools not only provide you with keyword ideas but also metrics to help you identify options with the most potential.
Use Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool for this.
Start by entering a seed keyword (a broad term related to your niche). And enter your website URL into the purple search bar to get personalized results for your domain.
Then, click “Search.”
The next page will show a list of keywords related to your starting term. And different metrics for each.
Here’s a breakdown of key metrics you should pay attention to:
- Search intent (Intent): The purpose of the user’s search. It could be commercial, informational, transactional, and/or navigational. Webpages that don’t meet the search intent are less likely to achieve high rankings.
- Search volume (Volume): The average number of searches per month
- Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD %): An AI-powered metric that shows how challenging it is for your specific domain to rank in the top 10 results for a given query
- SERP features (SF): These are non-standard organic (unpaid) search results that stand out from the traditional blue links. Such as images or videos.
How do you combine these metrics in your analysis? It depends on what type of content you’re creating.
Let’s say you’re the owner of the website shown above. And you’re trying to gather terms you can use in blog content. To drive brand awareness and increase organic traffic.
First, the keywords you select need to have either informational (I) intent—the user wants to learn something—or commercial (C) intent—the user wants to research specific products.
Then, aim for keywords with a Personal Keyword Difficulty score between 0% and 49% since it will be easier to rank for those.
When it comes to search volume, go for keywords with at least 100 monthly searches. So you can realistically grow organic traffic.
Apply filters according to these specifications.
Then, click on a keyword you’re interested in to learn more about it and analyze the top-ranking content.
You’ll now be taken to Keyword Overview.
Here, you can see your potential position in search results. And your domain’s level of topical authority.
Scroll down to “Keyword ideas.” And explore options for secondary terms to include in your content under “Keyword variations.”
Continue scrolling to the “SERP Analysis” section. Which shows a list of the top-ranking webpages.
Make sure to visit each of these pages and analyze their content to see how you can outdo it. And find semantic terms worth including.
Finding suitable keywords might take some trial and error depending on your industry and SEO goals. So, play around with different filters, dig into keyword variations, and consider your audience’s needs to get the best results.
7 Places to Use Keywords in Your Content
The main rule of keyword use is that you should incorporate keywords naturally.
But there are also some places where you should incorporate keywords to make it easier for users and search engine crawlers to understand what your content is about.
1. Title and H1 Tags
When search engine bots crawl your webpage, they scan both the title tag (HTML that specifies the page title for search engines and browsers) and the H1 tag (HTML that specifies the title on the actual webpage) to analyze what the content is about.
The title tag and H1 should be similar or the same.
Why?
Because title tags often appear in search results. So, a user will be confused if they click on a result and go to a webpage with a different title.
Here’s what an optimized title tag and H1 tag look like (assuming the title tag is showing in search results):
Your primary keyword should appear in the title and H1 tag—preferably near the front. So the page title immediately grabs users' attention.
And keep it under 60 characters, including spaces. To prevent Google from truncating it in search results.
2. Headings and Subheadings
Headings and subheadings (H2-H6) break up your content into sections to make it easier for users to navigate and to help search engine crawlers better understand your content.
This makes subheadings great places to incorporate any secondary keywords you want to rank for.
Here’s an example of a bad (left) article structure with no headings and a good (right) article structure that does include them:
The article on the left is difficult to skim. And it doesn’t let users know what kind of information it covers.
But the article on the right lays out all the key information upfront. And allows the user to skip to the sections they’re most interested in.
When structuring your article, keep in mind that each heading should cover a focal point related to the main topic. Any subtopics related to a specific focal point should appear as subheadings.
For example, the H3s under the H2 “7-Day Vegan Diet Plan” cover different days of the week. If we were to include an H3 that talks about the benefits of a vegan diet under that H2, it would be out of place.
3. Main Body Content
Your primary, secondary, and semantic keywords should appear naturally throughout your page’s main body content. This is a signal to users and search engine crawlers that your webpage is relevant to a specific query.
A good rule of thumb is to mention the primary keyword in the first paragraph. So users can easily understand what the page is about.
But is there a specific number of times you should mention the primary keyword?
The short answer is no.
You may have heard of keyword density—the number of times a target keyword appears on a webpage relative to how long the content is. And you might think achieving a certain density is important to achieve high rankings.
This is a misconception—keyword density isn’t a ranking factor. Instead, keep your keyword use natural.
4. Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable copy that takes you to another page, a different website, or an email client.
When linking to other pages on your site, it’s a good idea to use the linked pages’ keywords as anchor text.
Why link to other pages on your site?
Because doing so helps users discover related content they may be interested in. Plus, it makes it easier for search engines to find pages on your site.
When it comes to anchor text specifically, try to limit it to five words. And make sure not to use the exact same anchor text every time. Instead, mix primary and secondary keywords.
For example, you can use the anchor text “identical content” to link to a webpage targeting the keyword “duplicate content.”
This gives search engine crawlers more information about the content of the webpage and prevents your website from appearing overly optimized.
5. Image Alt Tags
Alternative text (alt text for short) is an HTML element that describes a specific image on a page and is read aloud by screen readers and shows on the page if the image doesn’t load.
Search engine crawlers use alt text to determine what an image is about. Which means incorporating your primary or secondary keywords in alt tags can help you appear in image-based search results to get even more traffic to your website.
Beyond SEO benefits, alt tags are important for accessibility. Visually impaired people who use screen readers rely on them to understand what the images on a webpage portray.
For example, if you publish a blog post targeting the keyword “carrot cake”, you can also add images of carrot cakes and include this keyword in alt tags.
Here’s an example of how one website did it:
The same photo also appears in Google Images search results for the target keyword.
Keep in mind that you don’t need to provide alt text for decorative images, such as graphic illustrations that don’t convey any information.
As for how long it should be, there isn’t a specific recommendation. But it’s wise to keep it to 125 characters because of screen reader limitations.
6. URL Slug
A URL slug is the last part of a URL that acts as a page identifier. And this is a prime place to include a page’s primary keyword.
Google has confirmed that a URL’s words are a “lightweight” ranking factor, particularly when encountering a piece of content for the first time.
Plus, using your target keyword in the URL slug is beneficial from a user experience standpoint. If a user sends someone else the link, the other person will immediately know what the page is about and may be more likely to click on the link.
A good practice is to keep the slug shorter than five words while providing enough information about the content whenever possible.
For example, a slug such as “/best-family-hotels-in-rhodes” is much better than “/best-hotels-for-families-with-kids-in-rhodes.”
7. Meta Description
A meta description is an HTML element that provides a brief (one or two sentences) description of the webpage content.
Although it isn’t a ranking factor, it’s still a great place to use your primary keyword to entice users to visit your page.
Sometimes, Google features meta descriptions in the brief snippets that appear in search results like the one below. But it might generate its own snippet.
Although there’s no character limit for meta descriptions, Google cuts them off at around 680 pixels (roughly 105 characters) on mobile browsers.
It’s also a good idea to front-load the most important information in your meta description. To make sure it’s visible and avoid having it get cut off if your meta description gets truncated.
Common Keyword Use Mistakes to Avoid
Now that you know how to use keywords for SEO, it’s time to go over mistakes you should avoid to further boost your chances of ranking highly.
Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is a bad SEO tactic that involves unnaturally adding as many keywords as possible to a webpage in an attempt to manipulate search results.
Not only is keyword stuffing a violation of Google’s spam policies, but it also doesn’t work because of Google’s 2011 algorithm update.
Modern search algorithms are advanced enough to understand when a webpage is irrelevant to a search query—even if it mentions a specific keyword.
If you’re wondering how many keywords to use for SEO, there isn’t a hard-and-fast rule. As we discussed earlier—keyword density isn’t a ranking factor.
But engaging in keyword stuffing will almost certainly hurt your rankings.
Ignoring Search Intent
Fulfilling search intent is important because search engines want to provide helpful results.
To do so, they analyze the user’s intent and provide results that match it.
Keywords are typically grouped into one or more types of search intent: informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial. And ignoring a keyword’s search intent causes poor search performance.
This is true even if your page is otherwise well-optimized for your primary keyword.
Here’s an example.
You want to target the commercial keyword “womens dresses with pockets.” But instead of targeting it with a commercial webpage (such as a product page), you write a blog post about how to sew a dress with pockets.
No matter the quality of the article, it isn't likely it will rank for the target keyword. Because it serves an informational intent instead of a commercial one.
No Keyword Strategy
A keyword strategy is a plan that determines the keywords you aim to rank for, the content you’ll target them with, and the priority of individual keywords.
A strategy allows you to find and target keywords with the highest business potential that help you achieve a specific goal. Such as increasing conversions.
So instead of targeting keywords at random, you’ll invest your resources in keywords with the highest potential ROI (return on investment).
With a strategy, it’s also easier to measure results and tweak your approach as needed.
Use Keywords to Grow Traffic
To increase your website’s organic traffic, you need to select keywords carefully. Then use them strategically on your website.
With a Semrush subscription, you’ll get countless keyword suggestions to grow your rankings. And you’ll gain access to position tracking, competitor analysis, and other tools to further boost your results.
Sign up for a free trial and test drive our entire suite of SEO tools.