When it comes to on-page SEO, one of the most important decisions you have to make is how many keywords to target per page. Many people make the mistake of targeting too many keywords, which can lead to keyword stuffing and decreased rankings. Others target too few keywords, which can prevent them from ranking at all.
There is no hard and fast rule for how many keywords you should target per page, as it will vary depending on the topic, the length of the page, and other factors. However, a good rule of thumb is to target one main keyword or keyphrase per page, along with some relevant queries (LSI keywords).
This blog post will discuss how many keywords you should target per page and give you some tips for finding the right ones.
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How Search Engines Detect the Keywords?
When a user types a query into a search engine, the search engine will scan its index for pages that contain those keywords. If your page contains the keywords or serves the search intent of the search query better than the competitors, it is more likely to appear in the search results.
That the most basic answer, though the reality is a LOT more complicated than that, as Google has much more ranking factors than this.
The number of times your keyword appears on a page (known as “keyword density”) is one factor that determines whether your page will rank for that keyword. However, it’s not the only factor, and you should never try to stuff your keywords into your content just to increase your density. This will likely have a negative effect on your rankings.
In addition to keyword density, search engines also consider factors such as the relevance of the keyword to the rest of the page, the position of the keyword on the page, and whether the keyword is used in other essential elements such as the title or meta tags.
Apart from these, search engines take many other ranking factors into account.
How Many Keywords Should You Target Per Page?
As we mentioned before, there are no specific rules for how many keywords you should target per page. Your primary focus should be on a particular keyword. If other keywords come naturally in the content multiple times, you can also keep them.
SEO is all about quality over quantity. If you try to keyword stuff your content, it will turn off your readers and Google. So make sure that the keywords you use are relevant and add value to the content.
Apart from your main keywords, you should also use LSI (latent semantic indexing) or related terms that are associated with your primary keyword. These keywords help search engines understand the context of your content and can improve your rankings.
How to Choose the Related Terms for Your Main Keyword?
You can use Google’s “Searches related to” section at the bottom of the SERP or Google Trends to find related terms. Enter your main keyword into the search bar and scroll to the bottom of the SERP. There, you’ll see a list of related searches. These are potential LSI keywords that you can use in your content.
Such as, if you search for “how to make apple pie,” google will show related searches like “apple pie in a can,” “open apple pie,” etc.
You will find related terms in the “People also search for” section. Simply enter your main keyword into the search bar, and scroll to the bottom. There, you’ll see a list of semantically related terms. These are potential LSI keywords that you can use in your content.
You can also make use of the section “People also ask” to find related queries. This section shows you some questions related to your main keyword that people often search for. You can use these questions as subheadings in your content and answer them accordingly.
Can a Page Rank for Multiple for Keywords?
Of course, a page can rank for multiple phrases, and this is why you want to use as many related terms as possible in the article. This increases the chance of your page ranking high on the SERP for several terms.
SEO Tools to Optimize Your Content
There are several tools available to help you with keyword research and optimization. Some of these include:
Ahrefs or SEMrush, which are tools that allows you to research keywords and find out how many people are searching for them. It also shows you how competitive each keyword is. This information can be handy when deciding which keywords to target.
SurferSEO is a tool that allows you to analyze your existing content and optimize it for specific keywords. This can be very helpful if you want to improve your rankings for particular keywords. You can also utilize this to optimize your new and old content with the right keyword placements.
There are some other tools that can help as well, such as Moz, and Google Keyword Planner.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there is no magic number regarding the number of keywords you should target per page. However, a good rule of thumb is to target one main keyword or keyphrase and several variations of that keyword. Additionally, use tools like SEMrush and Surfer SEO to help with your keyword research and optimization efforts. By following these guidelines, you can help ensure that your pages are correctly optimized for the search engines.