{"id":28414,"date":"2023-01-07T10:21:02","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T10:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/07\/primary-keywords-the-guide-to-target-main-keywords-in-seo\/"},"modified":"2023-01-07T10:21:02","modified_gmt":"2023-01-07T10:21:02","slug":"primary-keywords-the-guide-to-target-main-keywords-in-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/07\/primary-keywords-the-guide-to-target-main-keywords-in-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Primary Keywords: The Guide To Target Main Keywords In SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As I was researching this topic, I noticed that many websites got the meaning and process of identifying primary keywords totally wrong.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t worry, I\u2019m here to set the record straight and provide you with a clear and accurate understanding of what primary keywords are, how to identify them, and the best practices.<\/p>\n

So, if you want to improve your search engine optimization and drive more qualified traffic to your website, keep reading to learn the truth about primary keywords.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

What are Primary Keywords?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\"what<\/span><\/div>\n
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Primary keywords are the main keywords that people use to search for a particular topic or piece of information<\/strong>. They are the most relevant and specific terms related to the topic and are often more popular or in demand than other variations or synonyms.<\/p>\n

These keywords are the ones that you will focus on optimizing for with a dedicated page on your website and it will form the content. The goal is to have this optimized page rank highly in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for the primary keyword.<\/p>\n

Therefore, primary keywords are the most important keywords for SEO because they are the ones that the search engines use to understand the content of the page and to determine how relevant it is to a particular search query.<\/p>\n

So, it is important when you do keyword research<\/a> to choose primary keywords carefully and you should be only targeting keywords that are related to your niche, industry, and\/or business.<\/p>\n

Additionally, primary keywords are not only head keywords or body keywords but ANY keywords that can be targeted with a web page including head, body, and long-tail keywords<\/a>. Primary keywords are not those keywords that you cannot target because search engines show different primary keywords.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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How to Identify Primary Keywords?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Identifying the primary keyword is a key step in keyword analysis<\/a> in order to find the main version of the keyword<\/strong> with the highest organic traffic potential that you should target with your web page.<\/p>\n

Like this, you always ensure you are targeting the right SEO keyword<\/a>, minimize any keyword cannibalization mistakes, and can ensure you can optimize your content and on-page SEO<\/a> properly to attract the highest amount of organic traffic which can lead to higher conversions and more success for your business and maximize your SEO efforts.<\/p>\n

With that being said, here is the step-by-step process on how to identify primary keywords:<\/p>\n

Step #1: Analyze the SERPs to Validate the Keyword<\/span><\/h3>\n

The first step is to analyze your keyword in SERPs to ensure that the keyword in fact is a primary keyword and not secondary.<\/p>\n

Because in many situations, you can find a keyword that cannot be targeted<\/strong> because it\u2019s just a different variant of another primary keyword.<\/p>\n

So, to find out, whether your target keyword is the main primary keyword or only a synonym variant of another primary keyword you need to analyze the SERPs. So let me give you a few examples:<\/p>\n

Example #1: Keyword \u201cseo strategies\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

To analyze the keyword in SERPs I will be using the SEO tool SE Ranking<\/a> so I can analyze the keyword without any personalization and select my target country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"analyzing<\/span><\/div>\n
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Then I will go to the \u201cOrganic Results\u201d report to see what pages and keywords are actually ranking for this keyword.<\/p>\n

Here I will want to look at the titles and the URL of the ranking pages to see what primary keyword they target, so I can see whether the primary keyword matches the analyzed keyword \u201cseo strategies\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"example<\/span><\/div>\n
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However, in this example, I can see that my analyzed keyword doesn\u2019t match the SERPs and that the primary keywords here are \u201cseo strategy\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"example<\/span><\/div>\n
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And the second primary keyword is \u201cseo techniques<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"example<\/span><\/div>\n
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This means, that the keyword \u201cseo strategies\u201d is not primary, and to rank for the keyword, I would have to target the other primary keywords \u201cseo techniques\u201d and \u201cseo strategy\u201d and use the keyword \u201cseo strategies\u201d as a secondary keyword for these articles.<\/p>\n

Therefore, I will not waste my time on this keyword and note the other two keywords in my keyword list to analyze them later.<\/p>\n

Example #2: Keyword \u201clandscaping designs for backyard\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s again check the SERPs for this keyword using SE Ranking Keyword Research tool<\/a>. Again, I select my target location.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"example<\/span><\/div>\n
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Based on this I can clearly see that my keyword is not the primary keyword, but only a different variant for the primary keyword \u201cbackyard landscaping ideas\u201d or \u201cbackyard ideas\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"example<\/span><\/div>\n
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However, later on, I will want to compare the keywords research volume for my keyword \u201clandscaping designs for backyard\u201d with the keyword \u201cbackyard landscaping ideas\u201d to find out which variety has higher search demand.<\/p>\n

BTW if you are into the landscaping business check out my guide for SEO landscaping<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Example #3: Keyword \u201chow to stop a nosebleed\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, let\u2019s run this bad boy in the Keyword Research tool in SERP analysis to find out if it is a primary keyword or just a different variant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"example<\/span><\/div>\n
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Based on this I can see different variants of this keyword appears such as \u201cways\/tips to stop nosebleed\u201d, \u201chow to stop nosebleed\u201d, or only \u201cnosebleed\u201d.<\/p>\n

So here are a lot of variants that I could target, and I wouldn\u2019t be probably wrong with either one as I can see. So, I would analyze which of the keyword variants has the highest search volume and select that one.<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s move to the second step to find out which of the keywords are the primary keywords. Of course, I did not select obvious keywords for these examples as that would lose the point of teaching you and after learning this you will be able to clearly recognize any primary keywords.<\/p>\n

Step #2: Find the Highest Search Volume Variant<\/span><\/h3>\n

The second step is to find the highest search volume variant of your SEO keyword you have found.<\/p>\n

According to Ahrefs\u2019s study<\/a>, your page can rank for hundreds of keywords, which are mostly different variants of your primary target keyword.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And as you could see from the first step, there are many different variants, some that we will come back to further analyze.<\/p>\n

With that, let me give you a few examples.<\/p>\n

Example #1: Keyword \u201chow to manage backlinks\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first keyword I want to analyze is not from the previous step and it is related to my recent search when I found the keyword \u201chow to manage backlinks\u201d as a potential primary target keyword and how I analyzed it to find out whether it is a primary or just another keyword variant.<\/p>\n

Coming to step one, I analyzed the keyword with SERP analysis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"example<\/span><\/div>\n
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This showed me that the main variant for this keyword is not \u201chow to manage backlinks\u201d but it is \u201cbacklink management\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"example<\/span><\/div>\n
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So, now step #2, I will analyze the keyword \u201cbacklink management\u201d with SE Ranking Keyword Suggestions report<\/a>, to see if there are any other similar keywords with higher search volume.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"se<\/span><\/div>\n
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Based on this I can see the keyword \u201cbacklink management\u201d is the highest search volume variant.<\/p>\n

But now I want to also have a look at the top 3 ranking pages for this keyword and check their ranking keywords, just to double check whether there is any other keyword variant with higher search volume.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"analyzing<\/span><\/div>\n
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For this example, I only selected the first one and I would skip the second one because it\u2019s their homepage and not a blog post which makes it irrelevant to me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Here I can see that the keyword \u201clinks management\u201d has a higher search volume.<\/p>\n

However, I would not personally select this keyword and I would stick with the keyword \u201cbacklink management\u201d just because it is a more accurate term, whereas \u201clink management\u201d is a broader term and I would have to talk about backlinks and internal links management as there are two types of links\u201d.<\/p>\n

Therefore, for me personally \u201cbacklink management\u201d is the primary keyword that I will be targeting.<\/p>\n

So, as you can see, sometimes you will need experience and knowledge within the industry to make the right choices for your primary keywords.<\/p>\n

Example #2: Keyword \u201cbackyard landscaping ideas\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coming back to the example from step #1 where I have found my keyword \u201clandscaping designs for backyard\u201d is not the primary keyword but the main variant is \u201cbackyard landscaping ideas\u201d.<\/p>\n

So now, to further analyze it I will check the Keyword Suggestion report to find the highest search volume keyword variant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"example<\/span><\/div>\n
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Based on this I can see that the keywords \u201cbackyard landscapes ideas\u201d and \u201clandscaping ideas for backyard\u201d are having higher search volume.<\/p>\n

But, by looking that the search volume trend, I can see that the keyword \u201cbackyard landscaping ideas\u201d has better potential. Plus, it has lower keyword difficulty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"search<\/span><\/div>\n
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Comparing to the higher search volume keywords where the search volume trend is downward and has higher keyword difficulty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"search<\/span><\/div>\n
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Therefore, I would stick with the keyword \u201cbackyard landscaping ideas\u201d as my main primary keyword here.<\/p>\n

I could also further analyze the top-ranking pages, but in this case, it is pretty clear that this keyword is the main primary keyword, just because there are so many similar keywords that appeared in the Keyword Suggestion report.<\/p>\n

Example #3: Keyword \u201chow to stop a nosebleed\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

And with the last example I want to come back to the third example in step #1.<\/p>\n

When I look at the Keyword Suggestion report I can see that this keyword is by far the most lucrative in terms of search demand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"example<\/span><\/div>\n
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However, as you could see a lot of different types of pages appear in the SERPs for this keyword.<\/p>\n

Therefore, I will look at the ranking keywords of the top 3 ranking pages and select the one that will have the highest search potential.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"analyzing<\/span><\/div>\n
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And just by looking at the ranking keywords of the first page, I can see that the best primary keyword variant and the most lucrative is actually only \u201cnosebleed\u201d.<\/p>\n

The reason for that is that this keyword is broader and I can target secondary keywords such as \u201chow to stop nosebleed\u201d, \u201ccause of nosebleed\u201d and others within the content which altogether have massive search demand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"search<\/span><\/div>\n
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And from SERPs analysis, I could already see that just targeting the primary keyword \u201cnosebleed\u201d can rank for these other variants. So, it\u2019s really the best keyword I can target.<\/p>\n

On top of that Google already said<\/a>, that they prefer one big comprehensive piece of content to a lot of small ones, just like in this example.<\/p>\n

With that being said, identifying the right primary keyword can be challenging and it comes with experience and knowledge of the industry.<\/p>\n

Certainly, it\u2019s not an easy task, but it\u2019s probably the most important together with keyword mapping<\/a> for your SEO success.<\/p>\n

Also, if you are a medical specialist then I recommend you to check out my Local SEO for Doctors<\/a> guide.<\/p>\n

Primary Keywords vs Secondary Keywords<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Primary keywords are the main terms that you will want to optimize your web page for and want it to rank for in search engine result pages (SERPs)<\/strong>. They are the main keyword variant with the highest organic traffic potential whereas secondary keywords are additional related terms to the one particular primary keyword you are currently optimizing for.<\/p>\n

Secondary keywords help to rank for more related terms, increase organic traffic potential and improve the content semantics<\/strong> so Google can better understand what\u2019s the page about and improve the ranking for the page.<\/p>\n

Secondary keywords are helping you provide more details to your content and cover it in more depth to ensure you are providing the right information to users searching for the related primary keyword.<\/p>\n

Just like I have shown you with the example #3 keyword \u201chow to stop nosebleed\u201d, this keyword is a secondary keyword to the main primary keyword \u201cnosebleed\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, what many don\u2019t realize, just because the keyword is secondary for one piece of content, it doesn\u2019t mean the secondary keyword cannot become a primary keyword.<\/p>\n

In many cases, secondary keywords can actually become primary keywords in another piece of content.<\/p>\n

For example, the primary keyword \u201con-page seo\u201d can have secondary keywords such as \u201ctitle tag\u201d, \u201cmeta description\u201d, or \u201ckeywords\u201d which are closely related to it.<\/p>\n

But then I can take these secondary keywords and target them as primary keywords as they are related to my overall niche.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This is how you create extended topic clusters and build a strong semantic SEO<\/a> foundation for your website. By targeting all related topics within your niche<\/a>, mainly going deep and covering all the topics related to one part of your niche, you build strong topic relevance for your website.<\/p>\n

And this can help you build topical authority which means ranking in the top search results for your related keywords in your niche.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Which overall will improve your website E-E-A-T score.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Primary Keywords Best Practices<\/span><\/h2>\n

1. Target Only 1 Primary Keyword per Page<\/span><\/h3>\n

The first and arguably the most important best practice of them all is to target only one primary keyword per page.<\/p>\n

And there are a few reasons why you should only target one primary keyword per page:<\/p>\n