Secondary Keyword — The Ultimate Guide

As a web content creator, I guess you already know about Primary Keywords. Let’s talk about those keywords now that support the primary keyword. We call these supporting keywords the Secondary Keywords.

In this, I am going to explain to you everything we need to know about secondary keywords. For example, what they are, why they matter, and how to choose them effectively.

So, without further ado, let’s start 🙂

What are Secondary Keywords?

Keywords that support the intent of primary keywords are called Secondary Keywords.

Hence, these keywords are always defined in the context of the primary keyword.

Different SEO tools define these keywords also as Related Keywords.

These keywords help search engines to better understand the context of a webpage.

The search engine in turn rewards such webpages with higher ranking.

Secondary Keywords Example

These keywords are always defined in the context of the primary keyword.

Suppose your primary keyword is best coffee shops in New York city. Then, its relevant supporting words would be coffee beans, latte art, espresso machines, coffee roasting etc.

These keywords provide extra information about the primary keyword. And, helps search engines to understand the article’s context.

Why are Secondary Keywords Important for SEO?

To answer this question, first understand why we do search engine optimization.

We do SEO to help search engines better understand our website. Also to make a profit for ourselves as well.

Secondary keywords help us to achieve both.

Improved Semantic Relevance: Using them in a webpage improves its semantic relevance. Search engines use complex algorithms to identify the intent of a webpage behind a search query. Using relevant secondary keywords helps the webpage fulfill the search intent. Search engines then signal your webpage is semantically relevant and then rank it higher.

Improved UX: With secondary keywords, you provide additional context and value to the audience. That improves user engagement with a reduced bounce rate. It also increases the likelihood of returning visitors.

Note: Improved User Experience is a Google Ranking Factor.

Improved Search Visibility: Targeting a range of relevant keywords supporting the primary keyword increases search visibility. Improved search visibility means more exposure which leads to more conversions. Means more profit.

So, these are all the reasons why secondary keywords are important for SEO.

How to Find Secondary Keywords?

There are different ways to find them.

Using Keyword Research Tools

There are various free and paid keyword research tool available that helps you to find secondary keywords. Some popular ones are Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Keyword Planner, Keywordtool.io, etc. These tools also provide additional information like the keyword’s monthly search volume, difficulty score to rank on the search engine, CPC, Trend, etc.

Analyze Competitor Content

You can unlock more secondary keywords by analyzing your competitor’s content. To analyze your competitor’s content, you can take the help of keyword research tools or word clouds. Word clouds are the visual representations of the most frequently used words and phrases in a piece of text. You can use word cloud tools like Wordle, TagCrowd, etc. You can also ask ChatGPT to perform this task.

ChatGPT Prompt: Please select the most frequent words and phrases from the below text. Give me the data in tabular form. Please add the number of times the most frequent words or phrases appear in the text and add it to the table.

Google Related Searches

First type in your primary keyword in the Google search and hit enter.

Now, scroll down to the page bottom, and there you can see several secondary keywords.

Google Autosuggest

It is also one of the best sources to unlock some keywords.

Just type in your primary keyword in the Google search box and it will suggest you a bunch of related keywords. You can use these keywords as secondary keywords.

Google Trends

First, visit the Google Trends website.

Type your primary keyword in the search box and hit enter.

A new page will open with a graph showing your typed primary keyword popularity over time.

Now, scroll down to the Related Topics and Related Queries section.

Here you see the list of topics or keywords that are related to your primary keyword. You can explore any of these topics further to know their volume, trend, and other data.

Google Search Console

Open your Google search console account.

Then go to Performance > Search Results.

Now, scroll down and look in the Queries tab. Here you find all the queries that are driving traffic to your website.

You can then filter the queries related to your primary keyword.

Online Communities

Online communities such as Quora and Reddit are the goldmines of secondary keywords.

The reason is, they have enormous content.

To find secondary keywords from Quora, type your “primary keyword + Space + Quora” on Google search.

This filters the list of Quora content indexed on Google related to your primary keyword.

Now, opens each page and analyze the most frequent terms appearing on the page.

That leads you to secondary keywords.

Online communities like Quora are also goldmines of question keywords. Do note that question keywords are also classified under secondary keywords. The only thing is they are long tail but supports latent semantic indexing.

YouTube

Type your primary keyword in the YouTube search bar and hit enter.

The platform displays a list of videos related to your primary keyword.

Select the top 10 results and analyze their title, description, hashtags, and other details to identify the common phrases.

These common phrases are the potential secondary keywords.

So now, as we learn how to find secondary keywords. Let’s learn how to use it on a webpage.

Do note that finding secondary keywords depends on how much you know about Keyword Research.

How to use secondary keywords on a webpage?

You can strategically use secondary keywords on the below-listed places on your webpage.

Page Title: Include them in the title tag of your webpage. Make sure that the title tag is no longer than 60 characters, as longer titles may be truncated by search engines.

Meta Description: Add them to the meta description of your webpage. A meta description is a brief summary of the content of a webpage that appears under the title tag in search engine results pages. It should be around 155 characters long.

Headings and Subheadings: Use them in the headings and subheadings of your content. This helps search engines understand the structure of your content and the topics you are covering.

Body Text: Incorporate them naturally throughout the body text of your content. Make sure that the keywords flow naturally and are not stuffed in unnaturally.

Image Alt Text: Use them in the alt text of images on your webpage. Alt text is a brief description of an image that appears when the image fails to load or is being accessed by a screen reader.

URL: Include them in the URL of your webpage. Make sure that the URL is clean, short, and descriptive of the content of the webpage.

Conclusion

Incorporating secondary keywords in your webpage improves its ranking and organic traffic.

It provides more value to the audience and helps search engines to better understand the webpage.

Make sure to use these keywords naturally and not overstuff them.

With its right usage, it can unlock more opportunities and achieve your goals.