Effectively Place the Target Keyword
As you need to tell crawlers how your page is relevant to the target keyword and beneficial to the users, you need to include the target keyword on your page effectively.
There are particular locations where crawlers tend to check in order to assess the relevance of your page to the target keyword.
You must place the target keyword in those locations.
7 critical locations to place the target keywords
There are several locations where you must place your target keywords.
When you place the target keyword, you need to consider how naturally it is incorporated into the sentence.
- URL
- Meta Title
- Meta Description
- H1 Tag
- The first paragraph of the page
- H2 and H3 Tag
- Image tag ALT attribute and image file name
1. URL
The first important location where you must place the target keyword is the URL.
Human users and crawlers can understand the page's topic from the URL.
For example, the following pages are ranked #1 and 2 for the "SEO tools" keyword.
- #1: 36 Free SEO Tools for DIY SEOs
- #2: The Ultimate List of the 60 Best SEO Tools (Free & Paid)
Their URLs are shown below:
- #1: https://ahrefs.com/blog/free-seo-tools
- #2: https://www.semrush.com/blog/free-seo-tools
From this example, you can see that each page uses the keyword in its URL. You can guess from the URL that their target keyword may be "free SEO tools".
Tips: Use Hyphen in URL (Not Underscore)
According to Google, the hyphen is recommended as a word separator in URLs. Below is an excerpt from Google Search Console Documentation.
"Consider using hyphens to separate words in your URLs, as it helps users and search engines easily identify concepts in the URL. We recommend that you use hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_) in your URLs."
2. Meta Title
The meta title is defined by the <title> tag in the <head> section in the HTML document. As it is not shown as the main content on the web page, it is often called a "meta" title, although the <meta> tag is not used.
The meta title is usually displayed on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) and in the browser tab. Several sources say the optimal meta title length is 50-60 characters. You must include the target keyword once within this character count limitation.
3. Meta Description
The meta description is defined by the <meta name="description"> tag in the <head> section in the HTML document, and it is usually displayed on SERPs. Several sources say the optimal meta description length is 150-160 characters.
For mobile devices, SERPs show only around 120 characters; some experts say that the optimal meta description length is around 120-160. You must include the target keyword once within this character count limitation.
4. H1 Tag
The H1 tag is usually used as a shown web page title. Unlike the meta title, the phrase in the H1 tag is visible on the web page.
You can use the same or different phrases in the H1 tag and meta title tag, but ensure you include the target keyword once. To give more tailored information to crawlers, you can use different phrases between the meta title and H1 tag; however, you must maintain consistency between them.
5. First paragraph of the page
Having the target keyword in the intro section of the page is essential. The target keyword should be in the introduction section's first paragraph (or within 100 words from the beginning), so that your audience and crawlers can clearly understand what the web page is about.
6. H2 and H3 Tag
H2 and H3 tags are used as section and sub-section headings on a web page. Unlike the H1 tag, optimal character counts for H2 and H3 are rarely discussed. H2 and H3 tags can be shorter than the H1 tag.
You likely have multiple H2 and H3 tags on your web page. It is better to include your target keyword in some H2 and H3 tags for SEO purposes.
7. Image tag ALT attribute and image file name
As crawlers cannot understand images, you need to tell them how relevant the images are to the target keyword. You may need to consider adding your target keyword in two places.
- Image tag ALT attribute: the alt (alternative text) attribute works as a replacement for the images when the image is not available for some reason. This attribute can also tell crawlers what this image is about.
- Image file name: As the image file name is part of the image's URL, you indicate its relevance to the focus topic of your web page through the file name.
The ALT attribute and image file name should concisely describe the image's content. If the image is relevant to the target keyword, you can naturally incorporate the target keyword in the image ALT attribute and its file name. If the image does not represent your target keyword's idea, you don't necessarily need to include the target keyword.
Keyword density
Keyword density refers to how frequently a target keyword appears in a piece of content compared to the total word count. For example, if there are 10 keywords on a 1,000-word page, keyword density is 1%.
Long ago, the number of searched keywords on a page was an important factor for search ranking; however, this is no longer true. Search Engines are now prioritizing the quality of content and relevance to the keyword. Unnatural use of keywords can even be penalized.
There is no clear guideline for keyword density; however, you can gain a general understanding of the average keyword density by checking it on your competitors' pages.
We examined example pages ranked #1 and 2 in the "SEO tools" keyword to check keyword density.
- The first one has 5 "SEO tools" and 66 "SEO" out of 3,643 total words on the page. Keyword density is 0.13% for "SEO tools," and 1.8% for "SEO."
- The second one has 23 "SEO tools" and 63 "SEO" out of 5,601 total words on the page. Keyword density: 0.41% for "SEO tools," and 1.1% for "SEO."
From these examples, you can see that keyword density is less than 1-2%. This can be low enough to create high-quality content naturally, especially if you are targeting a long-tail keyword.
Naturally incorporate semantic keywords.
When writing for a topic you are familiar with, its semantic keywords (i.e., keywords related to the target keyword) are naturally incorporated into your sentences. However, you may miss some critical semantic keywords identified in the first step.
You don't need to include all the semantic keywords. The most important thing is to incorporate them naturally. Checking your semantic keyword list may also help you in content writing.
More Topics to Explore
Selecting Social Media Platforms for SEO with AI
Chapter 13. Optimizing Website Performance
SEO Basics for Beginners: Key SEO Concepts
Selecting and hiring SEO specialists
