Merely knowing what keyword you want to use on your WordPress page or post is not enough for your keyword strategy. You also need to properly implement your keyword within your WordPress site. 

Below I’ll go over exactly how to leverage your chosen keywords within a WordPress website.

Step One: Find Your Keyword(s)

Keywords are the foundation of website marketing and search engine optimization. A keyword is a search term that is typed in to Google. Many keywords strung together are called long-tail keywords.

Keyword: house

Long-tail keyword: 3 bed 2 bath house for sale near Miami 

(If I am going too fast, check out this article that explains keywords in more depth.) 

You’ll want to choose a new keyword for each page/post on your WordPress website. Re-using the same keyword across multiple pages can actually have a negative effect on your website’s search ranking. 

To clarify – you’ll use your keyword multiple times on a single page but not across multiple pages.

Once you’ve identified the keyword you wish to use on your web page or post, then you must write the content for your website. 

For the sake of this post, we’ll use the long-tail keyword “clean cast-iron”.

Step Two: Write About Your Keyword(s)

When using your keyword in the content of your web page or post, you want it to be as natural as possible. You’ll use your keyword as a guide to help you flesh out what you need to talk about, and this should inherently allow you to organically fill your content with your keyword and keyword variations. 

There is no real “rule” about how many times you should use your keyword in your page’s content. As a recommendation, I would say use your exact keyword at least 2 times per 500 words and in at least one heading. Then, you can always sprinkle in variations or related terms to keep your piece reading smoothly. But, if you are writing authentically and true to your topic then your keyword and its variations will naturally pop up in your text. 

It’s more important that your copywriting sounds genuine and effortless than it is to try to fill it with your keyword. Because, on the flip-side, Google will penalize keyword stuffing – or, the practice of just writing your keyword over and over again with no real value, to try to rank. 

Let’s take a look at how we might write about our long-tail keyword, “clean cast-iron”.

We could go on to add other related sections to this page such as: “Why You Should Clean Cast-Iron By Hand”, or, if the keyword is beginning to sound too repetitive, we could switch things up and just do an informational section on “What is Seasoning as it Relates to Cast-Iron”.

You get the idea. 

Step Three: Add Your Keyword(s) To Your Meta Data

For this, we’ll need to use a WordPress plugin. You can use Yoast or RankMath but I recommend RankMath and that’s what I’ll be using in this explanation. 

Once you have downloaded and installed the RankMath plugin, open the page or post you are working on. 

1. We’ll add your page/post title. Make sure to include your keyword here. 
2. Click on the red RankMath symbol in the top right hand corner to open up the RankMath recommendations.
3. Add your keyword where it says Focus Keyword.
4. Click “edit snippet”. A new box will appear.

This new popup is where you put your meta data information including: title tag, permalink, and description. This is the information that shows up in Google search results.

5. This is where you will put your title. RankMath has most likely already propagated this information from when you typed it in during the first step of this list. You will likely not need to type anything in here.
6. This is your permalink. It is the information that comes after your domain. For example, my domain is www.sun-soil.com. If you wish to view my biography, you will have to go to my About Page. To get to my About Page, you will type in www.sun-soil.com/about . The “/about” is the page permalink. Your permalink is likely going to be the exact same as your page title, but with dashes between each word. And you won’t include the “/” when writing your permalink, just the text.
7. This is your meta description. You will add a short, 160-character-or-less, snippet about your page/post here. Include your keyword but make sure it is embedded seamlessly in a sentence. 
8. Exit out of the popup window. Your changes will be automatically saved.

Congratulations! You have now successfully added your keyword to your page/post’s meta data and have completed one quality search engine optimization practice. 

From here, all that is left to do is to upload your content from Step Two on to your WordPress page or post and hit “publish”! Now, your WordPress website is rich with keywords strategically placed in the best spots. Repeat these steps every time you add a new page or blog post to your WordPress website to ensure the best SEO results.