If you're hoping to rank in Google search for your target keywords, then you'll need to include those keywords on your website. But how many?
When it comes to SEO, one of the most common questions that people ask is "how many keywords should I use?" It's a valid question, as the keyword density is still an important part of SEO. When you are writing content for your website, it is important to include keywords. There are a couple of reasons why keywords are important for each page on a website. First, they help search engines understand what the page is about and can therefore index it appropriately. Second, they provide a way for potential visitors to find your page when they search for relevant terms.
Keywords are also important for on-page optimization, which is a major factor in ranking well in search results. When used properly, keywords can help improve click-through rates and conversions. In short, they’re an essential part of any effective SEO strategy.
But how many is the right number? And which keywords should you target? In this episode, I'll share some tips on best practices for using keywords in your SEO strategy.
Listen to the Episode
Atiba de Souza: Alright. So this is a question that I get often, and I'm not gonna lie to you. It actually pisses me off that people ask this question and I want to cover it here today on Traffic Keys. And that question is very, very simple. How many keywords should I use for each page on my website? Yeah, that's the question and it pisses me off and we're going to discuss it.
Hey, everybody! Welcome to Traffic Keys. If you're a business owner and you're looking to drive more eyeballs to your website using organic traffic, you are in the best place because I've been doing it for over 15 years and I am here to teach you everything that I have learned for free over those 15 years. And this question is one that really irritates me. And it irritates me because the fact that it's being asked. I'm not upset with the person who asked the question. I'm upset because someone has lied to them previously which causes them to ask this question. Someone has given them bad advice, has led them astray in the world of SEO, which is what's causing them to ask, "How many keywords should I have in each piece of content?" Friends, the answer is absolutely, absolutely simple. Each piece of content that you publish on your website, must only be, must only be optimized for one keyword, one.
That's it, one. "Oh, but Atiba what about variants?" and "Oh, but Atiba but I got to write all of that just for one keyword?" Absolutely. Absolutely. You have to focus. Now, I want to be clear. I want to be clear. Here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that you're going to write a piece of content and it's only going to rank for one keyword.
That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is you're only going to optimize one piece of content for one keyword, there's a one-to-one relationship, a one-to-one relationship. Why is that so true and so important? Because think about it, think about it, in order to optimize a piece of content for a keyword, for any keyword, you have to consider a few things.
What is the URL of that piece of content is the keyword used in the URL? So, therefore, right there and then, how many keywords can you fit in that one URL without making it ridiculous. Okay. Number two, the next thing that we look for when we're looking at On-page SEO and really mastering On-page SEO is, is the keyword used in the title of the page and the heading on the page?
Is it used there? How many keywords are you going to stuff in a title and how many keywords are you going to stuff in the heading? You can't. Just one, just one, just one. Next thing that Google looks at is, is the keyword used in the first 150 words of this content. So, how many times can you use multiple keywords in that 150? Those are the top things that Google's going to be looking for when they're considering, "What is the keyword for this content? What is this all about?" It's looking for, "What is that repeatable theme?" And so, if you chuck it full with a bunch of different things, four, five, six, heck even two, you leave Google confused and say, well, what are you really talking about?
Is it this? Or is it that? Because Google is going to take what it believes the keyword should be, and then evaluate the rest of the content based on that. And even if you chose two keywords that are similar, that evaluation process is going to cause it to diverge. And you're not going to get a, "Yes, this content is optimized. Yes, this content is great for either one of those keywords." You have to, you have to focus on just one keyword. You have to, you have to focus on just one keyword. Did I sound like a broken record? I meant to, I meant to. Because anybody who's told you different has lied to you. I've been in this industry for over 15 years.
At this point, I have helped clients rank thousands of pages on page one of Google. Thousands, not a few, thousands of pages on page one in Google. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you, categorically, that's an entire structure and strategy of how we build content on websites at times, the pillar pages.
So, you have a bunch of pieces of content focused on one topic at a time. Okay. So let's say we have three or four of those, focus on one topic at a time, and we write those articles and then we write one summary article that talks about all four topics and points to those four pages and helps boost the rankings of those four pages.
The key is you must have one keyword. You must focus on one keyword in your article. Now, when you do that, and if you do that well, if you do that and you do that well, what's going to happen is as you talk about this one keyword, you'll be talking about a bunch of other things— about this one keyword, and you may use slightly different words even to describe this one keyword, and then you'll notice, "Oh, wow. This page is starting to rank for other terms as well. Oh, wow. How awesome is that?" I mean, it isn't uncommon for us to have one page that ranks for hundreds of keywords, but it all started with one. Google decided to rank it for all those others. And we'll say, thank you to that. We'll say, "Appreciate you, Google!" for that.
But the reality is we were going after one and that's what we want to win. We won that one, we're happy. We won that one, we're happy. And that's what you have to do as well, my friend. Okay. Is decide on the one keyword. "Well, Atiba, but really I need multiple keywords!" No, you need multiple articles. You need multiple articles. And you need multiple articles and then you can link from one article to the other article and back and forth.
That's perfectly fine. That's perfectly fine. Then after you've written those multiple articles and you have all of them, then you can write one summary article that points to all of those multiple articles. That's called the pillar page concept. Okay. Now, that's a little bit advanced, right? The pillar page concept, but that's where you're going. That's ultimately what you want to build with your content online. If you're not familiar with the pillar page con concept, perfectly fine. I've done other videos in the past on it. If we can we'll link one up above, if not, they're here on the channel, feel free to look them up.
Okay. So, I hope I've answered this question and I hope you hear me on this when I say "One. One keyword, one keyword per article." Alright, everybody. I'll talk to you soon. Bye-bye..
