How Many Keywords Should You Use Per Page?

How many keywords should you use per page? The answer to this question isn’t simply a number. Why? Because keyword selection ought to be a strategic choice based on a complex vision of the SEO process for a given website. How to devise the right strategy? Does your keyword list include some unnecessary phrases?

The ultimate goal is to do SEO for numerous phrases and reach top positions for each of them. However, before you get to this stage, you need to determine your initial priorities.

Starting cooperation with an SEO agency equals buying a certain amount of resources – largely time. The more keywords you select, the less attention is devoted to each of them individually. So, how many keywords should you use on a page to reach satisfactory positions in Google?

The number of keywords you target per page depends on the adopted strategy.

First of all, remember that keywords serve various purposes. This aspect is partially determined by the condition of your website. To evaluate your page, conduct an SEO audit. Perhaps your site isn’t developed enough and lacks some texts. Since the process of content development usually needs to be planned, goals (meaning previously selected keywords) are a must-have. New content is created based on these phrases.

Proper website optimization is crucial for SEO. The page should be filled with texts perceived by Google as natural and written by a human and for a human. They ought to have proper keyword density, although it shouldn’t be too high – otherwise, robots will categorize it as manipulation.

Therefore, keyword selection should be analyzed in the broader context which takes into account all the processes that are part of SEO. If you select too many phrases, you may need to expand the page. Then, the SEO process goes beyond your possibilities and it takes longer to see its results.

Because of that, an appropriate strategy and the ability to choose priorities are so important. One of the methods recommended on the MOZ forum (a website every SEO specialist is familiar with) is to divide a collection of keywords into three categories:

Of course, the first group is the most important – it should also be the smallest. This way, you can devote an appropriate amount of attention to each of the keywords.

There isn’t one unanimous answer concerning the minimal number.

Some SEO specialists (like Mark Walters) believe that five keywords sound reasonable if you run a small enterprise. Bigger companies can choose more. He suggests that the monthly search volume for these phrases should amount to 100. On the other hand, others claim that the minimal number of keywords you should take into account when doing SEO is eight. Online forums and blogs frequently advise that you ought to do SEO for at least ten keywords.

So what to do? Well, although we aren’t able to state that a certain suggestion is 100% true, it’s worth staying moderate and avoiding extremes. Surely, the size of the website, amount of its content, number of subpages, blog, and its updates certainly affect this factor.

If there are too many keywords and too little content, your website may become oversaturated with phrases. Google may perceive it as manipulation and penalize your page with a filter which results in being removed from the search results. If you do your best not to oversaturate the texts, some of the keywords may be left unused.

Technically speaking, there is no one, versatile ratio of keywords to texts that would be suitable for each website. Nevertheless, it’s undeniable that there is a limit to keyword density and Google won’t be happy if you exceed it. Last but not least, the location of keywords e.g. in the <title> meta tag seems vital.

It’s impossible to do SEO without keyword research. Phrases that are properly chosen, accurate and tailored to the business profile are an absolute necessity, an essential element that allows your website to appear in the search results. The best keywords are those entered by potential customers looking for specific products or services. The more industry-specific phrases, the better. To find out how to attract customers straight to your website, check out our entry: Long tail SEO strategy. What is it and how does it work?

To make sure that selected keywords have a positive impact on the SEO process, you need to optimize them properly. In practice, it means that content, code and graphics on the page should be in line with Google requirements. A proper SEO strategy helps to refine both the homepage and all the subpages. In this case, it’s crucial to implement relevant meta tags that describe page content and include thoroughly chosen keywords. Phrases shouldn’t be abstract. They should be somehow related to your content and images.

SEO done in accordance with Google standards pays off as it increases the positions of keywords.

Did you know, that you can use ChatGPT for keyword research? But it has drawbacks – learn more!

Despite many factors determining the best number of keywords for seo, there are a few universal guidelines:

If you want to get a specific number of keywords per page, it can be assumed that approximately five keywords per page (with search volume that is 100 or more) should be the right fit for smaller websites. Although the number may not seem impressive, it’s worth remembering that creating content with these five keywords means that your page will be displayed for a significantly higher number of phrases.

It’s all due to the fact that various combinations and phrases with different stop words count as one keyword. So, if “Christmas gift” is one of your keywords, your website will also be displayed for queries like “gift Christmas”, or “gift for Christmas”, etc.

Although extremely specific long-tail phrases don’t appear frequently in analytical tools and may not be as popular as generic keywords, it’s worth focusing on them because even 40% of all queries are made of at least four words.

Selecting relevant long-tails will allow you to reach recipients who are likely to convert as they look for specific products or services.

It’s worth remembering that model keyword density amounts to 1-2%. This means that a 100-word text should have only one or two keywords. Ideally, keyword density should be lower when talking about longer articles and posts.

The exact number of organic keywords per page that are beneficial for the SEO process depends on your industry, website condition, budget, product/service range and available time.

Even if you offer only one type of product or service, you should target more than one keyword. Why? The answer to this question is pretty simple – one word or phrase won’t attract as many visitors as the same word complemented with its synonyms and more specific phrases. Remember that users type in various search queries and frequently aren’t familiar with the exact names or specifications of the goods they’re looking for. Put yourself in the shoes of an average member of your target group and try to think of people who aren’t familiar with your offer yet.

Keep your content natural and make sure that it inspires trust and reads well.

Although it’s significantly better to focus on more keywords, it’s also vital to stay moderate. If you target a thousand keywords or more, you should keep in mind that you’ll have fewer resources to refine all of them. This, in turn, might mean that a greater number of keywords won’t actually bring you higher positions or any other tangible benefits. Be realistic and think about your budget and time.

It’s better to select ten keywords and fully optimize them than to choose two hundred key phrases and place them randomly on the site.

Moreover, it’s crucial to remember that there is something called keyword stuffing. It happens when keywords are unnaturally placed in the content and keyword density is much higher than 2 or 3%. You should avoid keyword stuffing as Google penalizes websites that try to manipulate the ranking.

Despite the fact that the above model looks well, a small number of keywords prioritized in the first place may seem insufficient to an entrepreneur.

Therefore, it’s important to note that SEO activities focused on selected keywords won’t affect solely these phrases!

The number of key phrases your website is actually displayed on depends on algorithms analyzing the text. Let’s assume that you’ve chosen the phrase “SEO for words”. Nowadays Google algorithms are so flexible that doing SEO for such a fixed (and unnatural) phrase will bring the expected results if the text contains phrases like “what words are good for SEO” etc.

Consequently, some of the keywords selected for your SEO strategy may turn out to be unnecessary. In many cases, it’s pointless to highlight several phrases, as Google evaluates one of them positively enough.

However, be careful. Google may treat two seemingly similar key phrases (e.g. “SEO services” and “International SEO services“) as completely different. This may result from various search volumes.

SEO done with a list of keywords in mind has another beneficial result. Selecting a number of keywords that match subpages with quality content will also improve your position on long-tail phrases.

After some time, you may evaluate the effectiveness of conducted SEO activities. The amount of needed time is determined by the competitiveness of selected phrases. It can be estimated by analyzing the volume of searches or competitors to high positions (local companies or global online stores).

If activities are successful, complement the initial group with subsequent phrases that are important from the perspective of the client and search results. The ability to combine SEO activities and business strategies bring measurable benefits.

Change your attitude to the number of phrases that should be used during the SEO process. Don’t be discouraged by the small group of initially chosen keywords and fight your temptation to target too many phrases.

It’s crucial to realize that you want to do SEO for numerous phrases and reach high positions for each of them in the long run. However, achieving the goal is a continuous process during which the attention of the SEO agency will focus alternately on both primary and secondary groups of keywords.

This example proves how crucial it is to change the attitude. SEO needs to be approached comprehensively; together with a website development strategy and business goals. As you can see, online marketing requires a complex strategy and lots of effort, just like the promotion of services or products in the “real” world.