Do you want to learn how to utilise a focus key in WordPress to increase SEO?
The principal topic of a certain piece of material is the focal key. It is the phrase or keyword that you expect users will use to discover that specific material in search engines.
We’ll teach you how to use the focus key in WordPress to optimise your content and raise your SEO rankings in this post.
What is Focus Key in WordPress?
The term you wish to rank for in search engines is called the focus key.
It’s a key aspect of WordPress SEO best practises, and it’s something that every website owner should incorporate into their content development process.
If you’re writing an essay on the greatest coffee shops in New York City, for example, your emphasis key may be ‘best coffee shops in New York City.’
You can also utilise other key variants. For example, ranking for ‘coffee shops in NYC’ may be a decent option.
Once you’ve decided on a target key, you may narrow down on that topic and make it more detailed in order to increase the SEO of your blog article.
All of the best WordPress SEO plugins are capable of assisting you.
For example, All in One SEO makes it simple to assign a Focus Key to each post, page, product, and custom post type. After that, the plugin displays a TruSEO score along with tips for improving your content.
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Similarly, Yoast SEO also comes with a Focus Keyphrase feature that helps you analyze your content.
How to Properly Use Focus Keyphrase in WordPress
We’ll be utilising All in One SEO for WordPress for this lesson, which is the greatest WordPress SEO plugin on the market. This is the plugin we use on WPBeginner, and it’s utilised by over 3 million websites.
With that stated, the essential approach remains the same, and the instruction may be used to any SEO plugin that supports the focus key function.
One of the benefits of utilising All in One SEO for WordPress is that it allows you to use several focus keys.
Additionally, you will receive a free Semrush integration, which will assist you in unlocking extra keyword ideas to expand the scope of your content.
The All in One SEO for WordPress plugin must first be installed and activated. See our step by step guide for additional information.
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If you need help, see our tutorial on how to properly install and setup All in One SEO for WordPress.
Setting Focus Keyphrase in WordPress
After the setup, you can add a new blog post or page, or edit an existing one.
On the post edit screen, scroll down to the AIOSEO Settings section. From here, you’ll find the option to set a focus keyphrase for that particular post or page.
Simply enter your focus keyphrase and click on the Add Focus Keyphrase button.
As soon as you set a focus keyphrase, All in One SEO will analyze your content for that particular keyphrase and will show you a score.
Improving Your Content for Focus Keyphrase
All in One SEO shows a score after you set your focus keyword with practical tips to improve your content for that particular keyphrase.
For instance, in the above screenshot the plugin is telling us to include the focus keyphrase in the SEO title.
Following all the recommendations will give your focus keyphrase the perfect score.
Let’s break down these recommendations so that you have them in mind when writing your content.
1. Focus Keyphrase in SEO Title
The plugin recommends adding your primary focus keyphrase in the SEO title.
By default, All in One SEO uses your post title in the SEO title. That means that if you used focus keyword in the post title, then the SEO title will automatically include that.
You can also choose to have a custom SEO title and manually edit it in the AIOSEO settings for that particular post.
2. Focus Keyphrase in Meta Description
Meta description is the short SEO description for that particular content. By default, the plugin will pick it up from the post excerpt.
However, we recommend manually writing a meta description of no more than 160 characters for best results. This way you can creatively use your focus keyphrase in the meta description.
Take a look at our SEO title, meta description, and keywords guide for additional information.
3. Length of the focus key
According to All in One SEO, a focus key should be no more than four words long. You can, however, utilise a longer focus key if you think you’ll be able to employ it effectively in your material.
4. In the URL, put the focus key.
WordPress allows you to create SEO-friendly URL structures for your posts and pages, allowing you to utilise meaningful URLs.
This URL is normally created automatically from the title of your article. If you used your focus key in the title of your article, it will also appear in the URL.
However, you may update the URL manually under the Permalink part of the Post settings.
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5. Focus Keyphrase in Introduction
Adding your focus keyword in the introduction section of your article is highly recommended for SEO purposes.
The intro section is the first sentence or paragraph of your article. If possible, try to use the focus keyword as early as possible.
6. Focus Keyphrase in Subheadings
Subheadings are essential in making your content more readable. That’s why search engines consider them important.
Using your focus keyphrase in a subheading adds more weight to it.
7. Focus Keyphrase in Image Alt Attributes
Because photos are vital for both user experience and SEO, image SEO may help your content rank higher in search engines.
For visually challenged people, machine readers, and search engines, the alt attribute is a meta tag that explains an image.
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Make sure that you use your focus keyword at least once in the alt attribute for all images inside your article.
Using all the above mentioned tips for your primary focus keyword will give you a perfect focus keyphrase score.
Using Multiple Focus Keyphrases in WordPress
Search engines usually will look for more complete sources to show in search results, to make sure searchers get the information they’re searching for. That’s why longer blog posts often tend to rank better.
You can make your content more complete by trying to cover all the necessary information and keyphrase variations that a user may be looking for.
For instance, users looking for best coffee shops in NYC may also be looking for famous coffee shops in Brooklyn.
All in One SEO for WordPress allows you to optimize your content for multiple focus keyphrases.
After you have optimized your content for the primary keyphrase, you can add more keywords under ‘Additional Keyphrases’.
All in One SEO for WordPress will show a score for each additional keyphrase that you add.
It will also show more recommendations for each keyphrase.
Now, it is important to understand that sometimes you may not be able to include a secondary keyphrase in meta description, intro, or post title.
Don’t sacrifice user experience for SEO and only apply these suggestions if you can do that without affecting readability and user experience.
Find More Focus Keyphrase Ideas
When it comes to keyword suggestions, most newbies depend on their intuition to predict what visitors could be looking for.
It is not required to rely on guesswork when accurate data is available.
All in One SEO for WordPress includes a built-in interaction with Semrush, which allows you to get more keyword suggestions directly from the article editor. Semrush is the most comprehensive SEO tool available, allowing you to discover smart insights based on real data.
When generating an article, just select the Get Additional Keys option in the AIOSEO settings.
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This will launch a popup wizard where you can either login to your Semrush account or sign up for a new free Semrush account.
Note: If you want to try the pro version, you can use our exclusive Semrush coupon code to get a free 30-day trial.
After that, you’ll be asked to give AIOSEO permission to connect to your Semrush account.
Click on the Approve button to continue.
That’s it!
Once your site is connected to your Semrush account, the plugin will close the popup and fetch the additional keyword ideas.
You’ll see a list of keyphrases with volume and trend graph. Ideally, you would want to include keyphrases with more search volume and a growing trend.
Simply click on the ‘Add Keyphrase’ button to select a keyphrase and All in One SEO will show a keyphrase score right away.
Tip: It’s critical that you start by writing for people. Avoid making overly large changes to your text only to cram in more keywords.
We hope that this post has taught you how to utilise the focus key in WordPress correctly. You might also be interested in our guide to increasing your organic click through rate so you can obtain more free traffic from search engines, as well as our comparison of the finest SEO rank tracking tools to check how your website is performing.
