Why you should use synonyms and related keywords

Using the right keywords is essential in SEO. Because using the words your audience searches with will help your posts and pages rank. That’s why we always tell you to try to find the perfect keywords for optimizing your articles. So, after finding the perfect keyword, why shouldn’t you use it repeatedly? Why would you use synonyms and related keywords? It might seem contradictory, but correctly using synonyms and related keywords can improve your rankings.

It’s important to know the difference between synonyms and related keyphrases. Synonyms are words or phrases that mean the same thing or are very similar. Using them in SEO can help diversify your content and capture different variations of a keyword that people might use in searches. For example, “car” and “automobile” mean the same thing, so they are synonyms.

On the other hand, related keyphrases are terms that aren’t necessarily synonyms but are still connected to the main keyword in context. They help capture broader search intent by covering topics and ideas related to your primary keyword. For instance, if your main keyword is “puppy training,” related keyphrases might include “puppy behavior classes” or “puppy command basics.”

Incorporating synonyms and related keyphrases into your content can make it more relevant. This approach increases your chances of ranking for various search queries.

Variation is key

The main reason to use synonyms and related keywords in your text is to make it much easier to read. If you write a text about ‘candy’ and use the word ‘candy’ in every other sentence, your text will not flow naturally and become unreadable. Your readers will most likely stop reading and leave your page or post. You’ll lose your audience. That’s why you should aim for variation in your writing. For example, ‘sweets’ and ‘delicacy’ could be synonyms for ‘candy’. Related keywords could be ‘chocolate’ and ‘sugar,’ which aren’t synonyms for ‘candy’ but are related to it and can, therefore, still be relevant for your text. We’ll get into that later on in this post.

So, for your text to be attractive and engaging, it should be varied. This can be done in different ways. For instance, you can try to alternate long sentences with shorter ones. Longer sentences are often more difficult to process, and using shorter sentences makes your text easier to read. You can also try to alternate the sequence of words to avoid too much repetition in your sentences.

But the most important thing is to vary with the exact words you use. Especially if you’re trying to rank for a long-tail keyphrase consisting of several words, such as ‘candy store New York’. Using that exact keyphrase in many of your sentences will make your text awful to read. Using synonyms and related keywords, on the other hand, allows you to make a text much more attractive while still being able to focus on your chosen keyphrase.

What about keyword density?

Of course, it’s important to regularly use your focus keyword and be aware of your keyword density. But you shouldn’t overdo it. In the old days, SEOs tended to stuff their texts with their keyword as much as possible. That way, Google would understand the text and rank it accordingly. But Google has come a long way since then. It can read and understand texts perfectly well and is getting smarter daily.

We’ll give you an example. If you type in ‘best candy store New York’ on Google, the results will show pages about ‘candy stores’ and ‘candy shops’. Google understands that ‘store’ and ‘shop’ are synonyms and treats them as such. 

This doesn’t take away from the fact that you should still use your focus keyword a few times throughout your post. After all, the focus keyword is still the word or phrase your audience was searching for. These are the words your audience uses and will expect to find in your text. That exact match remains important. But, to avoid using your keyword too many times – also called keyword stuffing – you can use synonyms and related keywords. That way, you can rank on these keywords while keeping your text attractive and readable.

Yoast SEO can help you find related keyphrases based on your focus keyword, saving you time and hassle. All you need to do is click the button to ‘Get related keyphrases’; you’ll find it right underneath your focus keyword in the Yoast sidebar. You’ll see a list of related keywords and search trend data when you click that button.

As a Yoast SEO Premium or Yoast SEO for Shopify users, you can add up to five related keyphrases to your SEO analysis. This lets you optimize your text for these additional terms similarly to your focus keyphrase. As always, you’ll see our familiar feedback bullets to guide you. If you’re a Yoast SEO Free user, you can explore related keyphrases using the tool, but you won’t be able to add these to your SEO analysis.

Yoast SEO can help you balance the use of your keyword, synonyms, and related keywords by recognizing word forms in different languages. If you want to know more, you can read about the related keywords feature in Yoast SEO for WordPress and the related keywords featured in Yoast SEO for Shopify.

The usage of synonyms versus the use of focus keywords is no exact science. The most important criterion is the way readers will experience your text. So, read and re-read it. Is it engaging and easy to read? Or are you getting annoyed by the constant use of a certain term? Be critical of your writing and ask others for feedback on your text. 

As mentioned earlier, you can add your related keywords to the analysis in Yoast SEO Premium and Yoast SEO for Shopify. By adding these, the plugin can check whether you’re using them in your text. Your focus keyword remains the most important keyword, though, and that’s why the plugin is less strict in its analysis of your related keyphrases.

You’ll also be able to add synonyms of your focus and related keywords when you use our Premium SEO analysis or Yoast SEO for Shopify. These analyses include checks to ensure you’ve used these synonyms in your text and your meta description, introduction, subheadings, or image alt text. Moreover, our keyphrase distribution check will reward you for alternately using your keyphrase and its synonyms throughout your text.

As we said earlier, Google has come a long way since the early days of SEO. It can understand texts, consider related concepts and synonyms, and recognize related entities. All this allows it to serve its users the best results. And part of being the best result is ensuring your texts are easy to read. Google wants to serve readable texts.

So make sure you deliver! Think of synonyms for your keyword or keyphrase and use them to your advantage. Take a moment to come up with a few alternatives for your keyword. But also think of topics that are strongly related to your keyword. You’ll notice that writing a naturally flowing text becomes much easier when you don’t have to use your focus keyword in every other sentence. Using synonyms and related keyphrases helps Google understand the context of your text, which increases your chances of ranking!

Conclusion

Focus keywords remain essential. These are the words your audience is searching for. People searching for ‘candy’ will probably not click on a result with ‘delicacy’ in the text. If you search for ‘candy’, you’ll expect to see the exact word in the search results. So, matching the keywords of your audience remains important.

Using synonyms and related concepts helps you write a text on topic and full of the proper entities. Repeating the same keyword over and over again hurts the readability of your text, especially if you’re optimizing for a long-tail keyword. Furthermore, using synonyms and related keywords may create ranking opportunities you’d otherwise have missed. If you need help with that, Yoast SEO Premium and Yoast SEO for Shopify offer extra features to ensure your content is readable and rankable.

Read more: Does readability rank? On ease of reading and SEO »