Focus keyword optimization
Using a focus keyword for your posts and pages is critical if you want to optimize your website for SEO.
What Is a Focus Keyword?
The focus keyword is simply the search term you want your post or page to be ranked for in the search engines. So when the audience looks out for that specific phrase or keyword in the search engines, they should probably locate you.
The possible elements where you can use the focus keyword:
- Title tag and meta description
- URL
- Heading and subheadings
- Body text
- Image metadata
- Anchor text of the internal links
Title tag and meta description
Page Titles and Meta Descriptions are short pieces of HTML code found on every web page. They show the title of the web page and its description, similar to the title and blurb on the front and back of a book. They tell you what the book (or page) is about before you open it (or click the link).
URL
Your URLs should be short and easy to read. It’s not the most important SEO factor, but it can help.
One of the benefits: If someone links to your page with the so-called “naked URL”, the backlink will include your focus keyword.
Headings and body text
It is best practice to use your focus keyword in the H1 heading of the page. If appropriate, it may be used in some of the subheadings.
Image metadata
You can insert your focus keyword into various image metadata, namely:
- image filename
- image title
- image caption
- image alt text
The alt text is the most important from the SEO point of view — it describes the image for visually impaired visitors as well as crawlers (that can’t “see” your image either).
Quality of content
Nowadays, ranking for almost any keyword is much harder than it was in the past — most niches are oversaturated.
