Keyword prominence as a Google ranking factor

Keyword prominence is an SEO best practice that involves using the target keywords of a page as early as possible in order to send a strong signal to Google about what the page should rank for.

This is a concept equivalent to the news standard of never burying a leader. “Buried” means hiding the main focus of the story under information that is less relevant to the reader.

This is considered a mistake in journalism because it conveys a confusing message about what is the most important detail in a given story.

Embedding lede in a piece of web content with “lede” as the target keyword is considered a bad practice in SEO because it sends out confusing signals about the content of the page.

This is at least a consensus in the SEO industry. But is this an unsupported theory or does Google confirm that keyword prominence is a ranking factor?

Here are more statements related to keyword prominence, and then the evidence to support it.

Disclaimer: Keyword prominence is a ranking factor

The position of the keyword on the page is said to play a role in search ranking.

SEO professionals recommend using the target keywords of the page as early as possible in order to benefit from a ranking signal called keyword prominence.

Keyword prominence is positively correlated with higher ranking. The closer the keyword is to the beginning of the title and text, the more prominent it will be.

It is said that using less conspicuous keywords will reduce the chances of ranking for that keyword.

When you search in Google, you will usually see results where the exact keyword you entered appears at the beginning of the page title.

Interestingly, it can be suggested that keyword prominence is a ranking factor.

Has Google confirmed it?

Let us look at the supporting evidence.

Keyword prominence as a ranking factor: evidence

Early evidence

Evidence supporting keyword prominence as a ranking factor can be traced back to 2011, where Video with former Google employee Matt Cutts.

He discussed how Google uses keywords when crawling the web, and how the first few uses of keywords will signal Google about the main focus of the page.

However, Cutts warns website owners not to overuse keywords, because more is not necessarily better.

“Modern search engines, or at least the way Google is built, when you first mention a word– [Google thinks] “Hey, it’s funny, it’s about that word.”

Next time you mention this word, [Google thinks] “Oh, well, still that word.” Once you start mentioning it a lot, it really doesn’t help much. Diminishing returns. This is just an incremental gain, but it’s actually not that big.

…So the first one or two you mention a word for the first time may help your ranking, absolutely. But just because you can say it seven or eight times does not mean it will definitely help your ranking. “

Recent evidence

Since 2011, SEO has changed a lot, but Google’s guidance on keyword prominence remains the same.

The following is the latest evidence that John Mueller of Google talked about this topic in a speech in 2021. Weekly question and answer session (At 6:43 mark):

“I suggest that if you want to tell us what your page is about, please make it as visible as possible. So don’t just put it at the bottom as a word.

Instead, use it in your title, use it in your title, use it in your subtitle, use it in your image title, all of these are for users and Google to visit your website Make it as clear as possible that this page is about this topic.

So this is the direction I will take. I don’t worry about whether Google can reach 20,000 words. Because if you are talking about the word 20,000 and you say that this is the most important keyword on my page, then you have done something wrong.

You really need to make sure that the information that tells us what this page is about is as obvious as possible, so that when users go there, they are like “Yes, I’m on the right page, and I will read what this page has to tell me.”

Mueller made a good point when considering keyword prominence from the perspective of user experience.

Going back to our burying lede analogy, when you use the most important keywords as early as possible, you end up optimizing for both readers and Google.

Other considerations for keyword highlighting

We have discussed how keyword highlighting affects SEO, how it affects user experience, and now we will discuss how it can potentially affect click-through rates.

Mueller strongly recommends making your most important keywords obvious in the title, title, subtitle, and main copy.

Page titles are not only a factor of SEO, they can also affect the click-through rate of organic search results. This is another reason why keyword positions are particularly important, because without traffic, rankings are meaningless.

In English, we read from left to right, so the page title with the keyword closest to the beginning will attract the searcher’s attention because it matches what they type in the search bar.

The goal of search engine optimization is not just to appear at the top of search results, but to get searchers to click on your page instead of others. Strategic placement of keywords can help achieve this goal.

Now think about what your visitors will do when they land on the page. They are likely to browse the content instead of reading it word by word.

With this in mind, you want to use keywords in your article as early as possible. You want to make sure that readers will see it as they browse.

Use keywords in the first paragraph, or even in the first sentence if you can. You want to immediately show your readers that they have found a suitable article to help them with their search query. Otherwise, they will leave.

As you continue to write content, make sure to use keywords again in the title and any other places that readers might jump to while browsing the page.

Keyword prominence as a ranking factor: our judgment

Keyword prominence is a definite ranking factor.

Google has repeatedly emphasized that from a search engine optimization point of view, using keywords at the beginning of the copy is better than appearing first at the bottom of the page.

If you want to maximize your chances of ranking for a particular keyword, include it in the introductory paragraph. Use keywords as early as possible, but don’t use them often, or you may encounter keyword stuffing problems.

For more information on how often keywords appear on the page, please refer to our chapter on keyword density.

Featured image: Paulo Bobita/SearchEngineJournal