And how do I use them to SEO my blog?
Are you confused about focus keywords? Not sure how to use them to optimise your blog?
That’s good. Because I’m here to explain it. Let’s dive in.
What are focus keywords?
Essentially, focus keywords are the phrases that you concentrate on in your blog posts to appeal to search engines, aka Google.
Focus keywords are a tool for SEO. You want your blog pages to rank on Google, right?
Is using focus keywords gaming the system?
Nope. It’s working hard so that people who need you and your products or service can find you. By optimising your blog with focus keywords, you are showing up and serving people (by making it easy for them to find you). You’re also being helpful to Google by making it easily understand what your blog post is all about.
Each blog post should have a single focus keyword
By focusing on one single phrase, you are making it super clear to Google and your audience what your blog is about. That doesn’t mean it won’t rank for other terms – it’s just the single term you want to rank for the most.
For example, as a Melbourne copywriter specialising in blog writing, my focus keywords are all about blogging:
- how to optimise your blog posts for voice search
- using free tools to find blog post ideas
- what to call your business blog
And in this blog post you are reading right now about focus keywords, the focus keyword is focus keywords. Crikey, that is confusing.
Side note: this is a very competitive search term and I am unlikely to rank for it. But, it’s helpful for my readers. (For me, this blog post is about helpful useful content, rather than ranking for a competitive phrase) Back to the tips.
How do I choose focus keywords?
Generally, you’ll have a good idea about the phrases you want to rank for your:
- products
- services
- industry
- location
Your focus keyword must be relevant to the blog post you are publishing. (I had a client ask me to optimise for the term ‘Facebook’, erm no.)
Google wants the search results to be accurate to the intent of the search. So you can’t and won’t rank for a focus keyword that has nothing to do with the blog post you are writing.
How do I research focus keywords?
It’s useful to see what others are typing into search engines. Your assumptions may be off kilter, so it’s worth checking.
Here’s a post about the free tools you can use to find keywords. Silly Google, it totally gives away data for free. It must be going broke by now.
There’s also paid tools you can use for keyword research like Ahrefs, SEMrush and Keywords Everywhere. These tools are helpful because they give you the search volume, so you can be sure there is good traffic for your focus keyword. Plus, you also get a search difficulty rating. This helps you understand whether you have a chance in hell of ranking for your ideal phrase.
Thinking of blogging about coronavirus? As you can see above, SEMrush helpfully tells me that it’s mighty difficult.
How likely am I to rank for a focus keyword?
It depends on the level of competition for that phrase. If you are going for something competitive, like ‘car insurance’ it will be extremely difficult to rank. You’re up against big brands with deep pockets. They probably have full-time SEO staff or agencies. If you are more specific, you may have a greater chance of ranking.
Type your chosen phrase into Google and see what appears
Is it big brands, huge industry leaders with bottomless pockets to spend on organic SEO? Then your chances are slim.
If the results aren’t quite logical and Google seems to have taken whatever it could find, then you may have an opportunity.
If the first ranking article was written ages ago and is rather short, then your longer, more detailed, better researched and up-to-date blog post may outrank it. (Get to work.)
Just because you won’t rank for a search term doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write the blog post. It is still useful and helpful to your readers and part of your broader content marketing strategy.
Using modifiers for focus keywords
If you are hoping to rank for a phrase and it’s competitive, you can add modifiers to your focus keyword to boost your chances.
Let’s say you sell handmade t-shirts for girls. Phrases like ‘t-shirts for girls’ are tough to target. (I just checked and yep: big brands like Target, Zara, Myer and CottonOn rank for this term.)
Time to get specific. Try adding modifiers such as:
- affordable t-shirts for girls
- handmade t-shirts for girls
- logo t-shirts for girls
- {your location} t-shirts for girls
- {colour} t-shirts for girls
- ethically made t-shirts for girls
- llama t-shirts for girls
The key is to use modifiers to focus keywords that:
- still accurately reflect your services
- big brands won’t bother to target
- still have enough search volume to make it worthwhile
It’s a fine balance. If you go crazy with the modifiers you are decreasing the volume. You can rank well for a phrase, but if no one is typing that into search engines, it’s not much use, is it? 
Focus keywords for blog posts
In blog posts, it’s good to target more specific focus keywords. Your main website pages and service/product category pages can target high volume phrases. Your blog, however, should be helpful and informative. So, it’s great to answer questions. People type plenty of questions into Google.
- How to ….
- What is a …
- When should I…
- How can I find…
- What does it mean when…
These question-led keywords are generally longer, because they have more detail. Which makes them perfect long tail focus keywords for your blog post.
Using focus keywords in your blog content
Okay, once you have decided on the focus keyword then you can optimise your blog article for that phrase.
There’s a few places you can place your focus keyword to ensure Google finds it and rewards you with a high ranking.
Where to place your focus keywords in your blog
- title of your blog (the H1)
- SEO title
- SEO description
- images – name the images focuskeyword.jpg and not image4073cropped.jpg
- image alt description
- subheaders (H2 or H3) – two or three times (depending on the length of your blog post
- within the body copy of the blog post (they tend to come up organically)
- in the first 100 words of the introduction
Knowing how to put your keywords in the right places will depend on your platform. Here’s some guides:
- WordPress – Yoast (you get a smiley face when you’ve got it right)
- Squarespace
- Wix
A word about keyword stuffing
More is not more. Google knows when you’re stuffing in keywords and being naughty. You will not rank if you use your keyword phrase a zillion times in your blog post. Plus, you make the post unreadable for your audience. Or at the very least, annoying. That’s not the impression you want to leave your valuable customers. They will click away fast.
Google knows how to spot keyword stuffing and you may get penalised for it. Don’t get sent to Google jail. So play nice.
So, to summarise focus keywords (TL;DR)
- focus keywords help Google understand what your blog post is about
- they also help your customers find you
- you can use free or paid tools to choose them
- they must be relevant to your blog post
- look at the level of competition for that phrase to see if you have a chance
- try modifiers if your chosen phrase is too competitive (or if it’s helpful to your customers, just blog anyway)
- longer phrases and questions work well for blog posts
- put your keywords in the right places (without stuffing)
Wait! I forgot that essential final step
Obsessively Googling to see how your post is ranking. Everyone does it.
Make sure you search in ‘incognito’ or ‘private browser’ mode. Otherwise, Google will take your previous Googling of yourself into account and artificially inflate your site in your results. YOu may be cheering when you see yourself on page one for your own search. But this might be only for your results, not your customers.
Be patient. If your blog is only just published it takes time for Google to find it and reward it. If you circulate it widely on publication, and get people reading it and sharing it, this will help you achieve results.
Happy blogging!
Kate
