Select the right keyphrases to improve your readability

You may have heard that longer (also called long-tail) keyphrases help you rank better and improve your conversion rates. Has that made you wonder how long you should make your keyphrase to get the optimal results?

Yoast SEO features a keyphrase length check, which can give you an answer. More precisely, the plugin provides you feedback when your keyphrase is too long.

Why is the length of the keyphrase important?

Keyphrases are the terms you want to rank for, so you need to use them in your texts. Longer keyphrases are better for ranking because they allow you to be more specific. Of course, the keyphrase should never be an excuse for having poorly readable content. So, you should not make the keyphrase too long, either.

✅ Avoid making your text sound unnatural and difficult to read

Let’s say you want to write about a red wine stain removal product. So, you come up with the keyphrase [fast and easy way to remove red wine stains]. Now, imagine having to use this keyphrase throughout your text. You risk making it repetitive and difficult to read. A simple solution would be to shorten the keyphrase to something like [remove red wine stains]. This shorter version is much easier to incorporate into a text in several places, without compromising readability, and you are still targeting the same content keywords.

✅ Make you text more engaging with synonyms and word forms 

In Yoast SEO Premium, you don’t have to stick to the exact words of your keyphrase. You can also use synonyms and different word forms. That will help you keep your keyphrase at an optimal length while keeping your writing engaging. So, for example, instead of saying [remove red wine stains] over and over, you can also say [removes red wine stains] or [red wine stains removal]. 

How to get the right length of a keyphrase?

You will find the keyphrase length check in the SEO analysis of the Yoast meta box. If your keyphrase is too long, you will get an orange bullet point. In that case, consider shortening the keyphrase. If the length of your keyphrase is right, you will see a green bullet point in the feedback.

Yoast SEO supports function words in specific languages. For those, the optimum keyphrase length is up to 4 content words. If your language doesn’t have function word support in Yoast SEO, you can use up to 6 words in your keyphrase.