How to Find the Right Yoast Focus Keyphrase

Yoast SEO is one of the most popular WordPress plugin in these days. Yoast SEO mostly used for customize content in pages and blog posts to get better SEO. But sometimes the SEO plugin’s features go misunderstand. Focus keyphrase input field is the feature that goes misunderstand mostly. In this tutorial we’re going to discuss about how to find the right Yoast focus keyphrase.

What is a Yoast focus keyphrase?

Firstly you should know what the focus keyphrase is before find the right Yoast focus keyphrase? Focus Keyphrase is the phrase used to rank your post or page on search engine results. When people searching something related to your focus keyphrase, you page or post should be appeared. But sometimes focus keyphrase is going misunderstand. There are two common mistakes doing when selecting a focus keyphrase.

1. Selecting a focus keyphrase optimizes your SEO toward that keyphrase

The truth is Yoast gives the chance user to select a focus keyphrase. It doesn’t suggest a list of keyphrases that matches with your content at all. After you enter the focus keyphrase, it doesn’t optimize your content to rank for that keyphrase. It only judges your content based on keyphrase that you entered.

If I used “Yoast” as my focus keyphrase in this post what the result will be? Yoast SEO probably will turn up to green. Because content is consist with that word many times. But will that keyphrase give details what your post is perfect for. Not exactly. That is the second misunderstanding we gonna talk about.

2. Your focus keyphrase should be what your page or post is about

Many people think that focus keyphrase should be matched with your post or page content. But that’s not true. You should select a focus keyphrase that matches with what you post or page perfect for. When you selecting a focus keyphrase, it says this is the best place to know about your focus keyphrase.

Let’s take an example to clear this. You are going to write an article about the best climate for growing oranges. What would you choose as your focus keyphrase. Would it be orange or climate. Both are wrong. Your are not talking about about oranges or climate.

That is not a perfect article about both of them. There are thousands and millions of posts that describe perfectly about them. These are very poor keyphrases for your post. Therefore you need to make sure to select a focus keyphrase that what your post is perfect for. You don’t need to select the best keyphrase. You need to select a one that matches searchers intent.

What is search intent?

Search intent also called keyword intent, the goal of any search engine user. It is important to find the right Yoast focus keyphrase. They use search results differently according to their goals. Understanding search intent is important to get better SEO.

Let’s take an example. Imagine you are going to search about  “Ford Mustang”. What would be in your results. The pages about  Ford Mustang sellers will be in the top of the list. But if you have searched about “Ford Mustang 0 to 60”, the result would be different. You will be able to see content about the 0 to 60 specs for the Ford Mustang instead. That is the difference between two search intents.

If you have written a article about the 0 to 60 times for the 2020 GT Ford Mustang. If you use  “Ford Mustang” as your focus keyphrase, it won’t give you much results. Because people who are using that phrase are looking for information about where to buy a Ford Mustang. But if you use “Ford Mustang 0 to 60”, it will match with the search intent that people want to find information about the Ford Mustang’s. That’s the keyphrase you should use.

Instead of thinking about post content think about what search intent it is perfect and questions that your post gives answers.

What does the Yoast focus keyphrase actually do?

Yoast does not read your content or gives a critical thinking analysis about it. It just say how good  you have optimized your chosen focus keyphrase on your page. It will give you a SEO score. But it is created on based of whether you have entered focus keyphrase in your title, meta description and how many times you have used it in your text.

It won’t say what is the best keyphrase to use or what to write. Focus keyphrase is all about what your post is perfect for.  It’s your duty to making your post perfect for something.  Yoast does not do it for you. After you find the right Yoast focus keyphrase you can add it to post’s meta description and post title. Adding SEO friendly URL in WordPress will lead to boost SEO also.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Yoast SEO Really Work?

Yoast SEO really works. It is the most popular SEO plugin on WordPress for about 11 years now. Yoast has over 11 million downloads and a 5-star rating also. There is a free version of the Yoast plugin. It has the Premium version of plugin also. If you use the Premium version, you will have more features than free version of Yoast.

How do I install Yoast SEO for free?

You can install Yoast SEO for WordPress within few easy steps. Firstly log in to your WordPress website. Then you will be in your ‘Dashboard’. Next click on ‘Plugins’. You can see a menu which is on the left-hand side. Then search for ‘Yoast SEO’ and on ‘Add New’ which is on near the top of the screen. Click ‘Install Now’ button. Now you can activate the plugin. Its done of install Yoast SEO now.

What makes a good keyphrase?

Your target keywords need to have four criteria. They are significant search volume, high relevance, strong conversion value, and reasonable competition. You should not make the focus keyphrase in length of a whole sentence. Its better to have maximum four relevant keywords in your focus keyphrase. Because longer keyphrases make harder to optimize your page or post.