The SEO analysis in the Yoast SEO Premium plugin provides feedback on your keyphrase distribution. What does keyphrase distribution entail? Why does it matter? And: what does it take to get a green bullet for this check?
You write an article thinking of an idea that you want to put into words. Based on that subject, you decide on the focus keyphrase you want the post to rank for. For Google to understand that, you need to use the keyphrase throughout the text. Keyphrase distribution is about that: have you used your keyphrase (and/or synonyms and related keyphrases) throughout the whole text, in a balanced way?
In the Yoast SEO plugin, you can enter your focus keyphrase. The plugin will check several aspects related to your focus keyword, including how evenly your keyword or keyphrase is distributed throughout the text. If youre seeing an orange or red bullet for this check, you need to work on the use of your keyphrase throughout your text.
At Yoast, we believe in holistic SEO. We believe that your website as a whole should be awesome, and optimized for search engines and users. This also goes for keyphrase distribution. Heres an example of a text that could do with better distribution of the focus keyphrase.
If the focus keyword for this text were dog, a few things can be deducted from this overview. Most importantly: the focus keyword is only being mentioned in the first paragraph, and quite often too. Using your focus keyphrase enough is definitely important, which is why Yoast SEO also offers a keyphrase density check. But just mentioning it an X amount of times isnt going to cut it. You need a good balance throughout your text. Why does that matter to search engines and users? Well explain.
First off: search engines. Why do they mind how you distribute your focus keyword throughout a text? Well, if you want Google to know what you want a page to rank for, you need to make it clear. If your focus keyphrase is well-represented in a part of the page but nearly non-existent in the rest, that confuses Google. If a page is aiming to rank for a specific term, you would expect the term to be mentioned throughout the whole text. The same goes for search engines. If youre not using your keyphrase throughout the text, they wont know if the text actually covers the subject. Google wants to serve its users the best possible result or answer. If its unclear whether your content lives up to that, it will not rank as high as it would otherwise.
User experience is also an important aspect of SEO. If your users dont enjoy the look, feel, and content of your website, thats not good for your ranking. Google takes user signals like bounce rate and click-through rate seriously. Part of a good user experience is offering clear, readable texts to your users. Using your focus keyphrase too many times within a relatively short piece of text makes that text hard to read. It could be repetitive, which can be annoying for your users. It also makes it harder to find your answer to their question. That doesnt serve you, your user, or Google well.
Learn more about this check in Yoast SEO in our explanation of the keyphrase distribution assessment.
If you get an orange or even a red bullet for keyphrase distribution in the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, you can quite easily fix that. It might sound a bit obvious, but the key is finding a good balance in using your focus keyphrase throughout the page. Dont use it too often within a shorter piece of text. Keep it easy to read. But also: dont forget to consistently use the keyphrase throughout the page. By using it in several places in the whole text, you show that youre still talking about the subject there and that you havent strayed from the topic at hand.
And heres a great tip: make use of synonyms. Yoast SEO Premium now lets you add synonyms and related keyphrases. Its probably easier anyway, to write a text without repeating the same term all the time. Also, using different versions of your keyphrase makes your content easier to read for people. You dont have to worry about Google, as it understands context and synonyms better and better. Lets go back to the example we just discussed, in which the focus keyword dog was used a lot, all in the first paragraph of the text.
The score for keyphrase distribution is better in this version, worthy of a green bullet even. The word dog has been used less and spread more over the rest of the text. Also, synonyms of the word dog have been used to increase readability.
The keyphrase distribution check in Yoast SEO Premium can handle synonyms. Enter synonyms for your focus keyphrase and the check will recognize them as such. The previous image shows the keyphrase distribution check highlighting not only the word dog but the synonyms weve entered. They are tail-wagger, mutt, pooch, mans best friend, and doggy. By using synonyms you improve the readability of your text by using different terms while doing the right thing for your SEO! Using this tool in Yoast SEO shows you, at a glance, how well-distributed your keyphrase is. So check the distribution and work on it. Remove some mentions, rewrite some sentences, and make use of synonyms.
Have you enjoyed learning how to improve your keyphrase distribution? Theres a lot more to writing awesome content! Yoast Academys SEO copywriting training teaches you the ins and outs of writing really good and readable content while keeping an eye on SEO. During the course, well walk you through writing a blog post. At the end of the course, well check it for you, and provide feedback. The SEO copywriting training is an online course that you can take in your own home and at your own pace. Great content is indispensable, so lets get to it. Learn to write awesome copy that ranks!
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Balancing your keyphrase distribution Yoast