How to use the focus keyword in Yoast SEO | how to get into google [Rank] focus keyword

focus keyword

We discussed what keywords are. We also looked at the factors you should take into account when doing keyword research. In this article, we’ll show you how you can use the Yoast SEO plugin to optimize your chances of ranking with your focus keywords. Yoast SEO has a specific input field for your focus keyword in the Yoast SEO meta box underneath your post,

 

as you can see here. So what you do is fill out your focus keyword, like “ballet shoes for kids” and then the plugin checks how you’re doing with that keyword. Let’s look at some examples. We’ve already talked about keyword density, which is how often you use your keyword. Well, the plugin will check how often you use your keyword in your text. If you don’t use it enough, or if you use it too often, the plugin will warn you. The plugin doesn’t only look at how often you use your focus keyword, but where you use it, too. You should use your keyword in the first paragraph, in the SEO title, in the meta description,

 

in one or more subheadings and ideally also in the URL. In short, while filling out your focus keyword, the plugin will tell you to what extent your blog post is SEO-friendly for that specific focus keyword. That’s what the focus keyword functionality does. But how do you know what focus keyword to put into the input field? Well, if you have Yoast SEO Premium, there’s a nifty little tool that can help you, called “Insights”.Right below the SEO feedback we’ve just looked at,

you’ll see a list of words you’ve used frequently in your text. The words that we list there are often the most critical in your article and can be of great help when you’re unsure what your focus keyword should be. But of course, it’s even better to know what your focus keyword will be before writing the article. So how do you go about this? As we’ve seen before, while choosing a focus keyword, you should consider both your competition and your audience. And you can use tools like Google Trends to see which words your audience is using. So in this example, I checked whether the focus keywords “focus keyword” or “snippet preview” was used the most.

 

 

And the one that won is the one that I optimized my post for with the plugin. As we’ve discussed before, you can always Google your keyword to see what the results currently look like. You should ask yourself every single time with a focus keyword: “Am I going to stand out between the results that come up?” And lastly, it’s imperative to use a focus keyword only once. So, if you are going to optimize a post for a specific focus keyword, you want that post to be found. If you’re going to optimize two posts for the same focus keyword, Google will not know which one to show in the search results, and they will both rank lower. So it would help if you only used a focus keyword once.

Let’s look at some key takeaways from this lesson. Firstly, the Yoast SEO plugin gives feedback on your use of the focus keyword you filled in. It looks at how often and where you’ve used your keyword. You can use the “Insights” tool for inspiration if you’re using Yoast SEO Premium. And you should always use your focus keyword for one post only, to make sure you’re not competing with yourself. Good luck!