How to Use Focus Key Phrase in Blog Post and Its correct Placement and Length

In order to optimize your content for search engines and increase your visibility, it is essential to include focus key phrases in your blog posts. The following are some efficient methods for seamlessly including focus key phrases in blog posts:

Examine your primary area of interest: Do extensive research on the focus key phrase you want to target before writing your blog post. Learn about its popularity, competition, and connection to your content.

What is a focus keyphrase?

A focus keyphrase refers to the specific phrase that you want your post or page to be discovered for in search engines. While it can be a single word, it typically consists of a few words, which is why it's called a keyphrase. For example, if you want your blog post to rank for the term "healthy snacks," you optimize your content accordingly. Your focus keyphrase can also be longer and more specific. For instance, you might write an article about healthy snacks designed for kids and optimize it for the keyphrase "healthy snacks for kids." Similarly, if your post is about healthy snacks to eat after a workout, you can optimize it for "healthy snacks after workout."

Placement planning: The title, headings, and subheadings of your blog post should all contain your focus key phrase. This helps search engines understand your content's main topic.

Conclusion and introduction: Your blog post's introduction and conclusion should contain your focus key phrase. This lets search engines know right away how important your content is.

Natural speech: Write your blog post naturally and in a way that makes it easy to read. Avoid cramming your focus keyword unnaturally into the content because doing so can make it harder to read and make the user experience less enjoyable. Instead, concentrate on providing useful information and naturally incorporating the key phrase wherever it makes sense.

Body passages: Organically distribute your focus keyword throughout the blog post's body. To give your content more context and depth, make use of variations of the key phrase and related terms.

Image enhancement: Include your focus keyword in the alt tags of the images in your blog post to make them as effective as possible. Your chances of appearing in image search results are increased as a result of this, which helps search engines comprehend the images' content.

URLs and meta tags: In the URL, meta title, and meta description of your blog post, use your focus key phrase. Your click-through rate may be affected by these elements, which provide search engines with additional signals.

Keep in mind that the primary objective is to naturally incorporate your focus key phrase into high-quality content that engages readers. The key to creating blog posts that are engaging and friendly to search engines is to strike a balance between optimization and readability.

Why does keyphrase length matter for SEO?

The length of your keyphrase plays a significant role in SEO. You have different approaches to choosing a keyphrase for your posts or pages. You can opt for a short, generic keyword that receives high search traffic. However, such keywords also face intense competition. For example, "snacks" is a commonly searched term, but numerous companies will be optimizing for it. In the analogy of a graph, these less specific keyphrases are represented by the body of a mouse.

Alternatively, you can choose a longer, more specific keyphrase, often referred to as a long-tail keyphrase. These longer keyphrases may attract less search traffic, but they tend to have higher conversion value because they focus on a particular product or topic. For instance, while fewer people may search for "healthy snacks for children" compared to the generic term "snacks," those who use the more specific keyphrase are more likely to find exactly what they are looking for.

Optimizing your post for longer keyphrases can be challenging. It requires using a larger number of words in close proximity, which can make the text less readable. However, tools like Yoast SEO Premium and Yoast SEO for Shopify can help you overcome this challenge. These tools recognize word forms, provide options to optimize for synonyms and related keyphrases, making it easier to maintain readability. On the other hand, focusing on a single keyword may make it easier to optimize the post, but it will face tougher competition in ranking.

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What does the keyphrase length assessment in Yoast SEO do?

The keyphrase length assessment in Yoast SEO checks whether the focus keyphrase is present and whether it is not excessively long. But what constitutes as "too long"? To answer this question, it's essential to understand how Yoast SEO handles your keyphrase and which words are counted when assessing its length.

Yoast SEO aims to mimic the behavior of Google. Google can identify individual words from longer search terms, even if the words are not in the exact order as the query. For example, when you search for "easy to use and short site structure guide" on Google, the search results highlight the words (including different word forms) of that search term, even though they may not be in the same order as the original query.

Yoast SEO follows a similar approach. It breaks down your keyphrase into individual words and uses them for various SEO assessments. For instance, in the keyphrase density check, it verifies whether these words appear in close proximity to each other in your content. Instead of exact matches, it focuses on natural writing that may vary the word order in sentences.

In some languages, Yoast SEO can filter out function words like "the," "and," or "if," retaining only the content words that carry the most meaning. Moreover, Yoast SEO Premium for WordPress and Yoast SEO for Shopify can check for different word forms and synonyms of the words in your keyphrase.

What are the limits?

Returning to the length of your keyphrase, Yoast SEO evaluates its length and provides feedback if it exceeds certain limits. A keyphrase that is too long can jeopardize the readability of your content. Imagine using a phrase like "easy to use and short site structure guide" excessively throughout your text. Even though you don't have to repeat those exact words in the same order, it would likely result in an unnatural and awkwardly written text.

The limits for this assessment depend on whether function words can be excluded in your language. If function words can be removed, the limit is set at four words. If function words cannot be excluded, the limit is six words. If your keyphrase exceeds these limits, you will receive an orange or red bullet in the SEO assessment of your post.

What should you do with the extra words?

If you're using Yoast SEO, it is recommended to trim down your focus keyphrase to include only the most important words you want your post to rank for. Of course, you can still incorporate the other words into your content. However, to ensure you use them adequately and have the potential to rank for them, you can utilize the related keyphrase functionality in Yoast SEO Premium or Yoast SEO for Shopify.

For example, if you want to rank for the keyphrase "easy to use and short site structure guide," it is advisable to optimize your post for "easy site structure guide" and utilize the related keyphrase field for "short site structure guide." You can also use this field for other relevant keyphrases. For instance, if your post is about internal linking, you could include "internal linking" as a related keyphrase. By adopting this approach, you ensure that you optimize your content for all the specific aspects of your long-tail focus keyword.

This functionality allows you to address multiple aspects of a long-tail keyword while maintaining the readability of your text. Additionally, you can enter synonyms of your keyphrase, which further enhances the quality and relevance of your content. Learn more about why using synonyms in your text is beneficial.