How to Find & Use Secondary Keywords to Boost Your SEO Traffic

To choose the best keywords for your SEO strategy, you should know how Google search works. One key part is to understand the difference between primary keywords and secondary keywords.

SEO keywords no longer work the same way they did in earlier years.

Instead of simply choosing a list of keywords and creating a page or piece of content to target each one, today you need a more sophisticated and nuanced keyword strategy.Which must align with the realities of semantic search, user intent, and modern SEO practices.

Let’s find out more.

What Are Secondary Keywords?

In your SEO strategy, secondary keywords support and complement the primary keyword to enrich your content and broaden its reach.

They are generally synonyms or close variations of the target keyword. And they help your content rank for a wider range of keywords and closely related subtopics.

By using these thematically similar terms, both the reader and search engines get a better understanding of what specific subject matter you’re covering.

As their name implies, they’re secondary to the primary or target keyword.

Important: The hallmark of a secondary keyword is when the search results are nearly identical to the ones provided for the primary keyword.

Like this:

The links listed on the search engine results pages (SERPs) are almost identical. Google believes both searchers are looking for information on the same topic: vegan recipes.

It wouldn’t make sense to target the primary keyword and the secondary...