Focus keyword examples: twelve worked pairs, and how to pick one per page

A focus keyword is the single phrase a page is written to answer. You pick it before you write, you put it in the title, the first paragraph, one subheading and the URL, and in Yoast or Rank Math you type it into the focus keyphrase field so the plugin can check the page is clearly about it. A good example looks like "stainless steel kettle descaling" rather than "kettles", and "emergency plumber in Leeds" rather than "plumbing services". The pattern is always the same: the words a real person types, one intent, one page. Below are twelve worked examples across the page types most sites have, plus the five tests a focus keyword has to pass and where it goes once you have it.

This page covers choosing and using a focus keyword. For the plugin panel that scores it, see Yoast content analysis and the Rank Math SEO analyzer.

Twelve worked examples

Page	Weak focus keyword	Better focus keyword	Why
Home page of a local trade	plumbing	emergency plumber leeds	Adds the service and the place, which is how the customer searches
Service page	our services	boiler replacement cost	Names the job and the question the buyer has about it
Second service page	heating	underfloor heating installation	Specific enough that it does not compete with the first page
Location page	areas we cover	plumber in headingley	One place per page, in the name locals use
Product page	kettle	1.7 litre stainless steel kettle	Matches how a shopper narrows down before buying
Category page	products	cordless electric kettles	A category phrase, not a single product phrase
How to article	descaling	how to descale a kettle	Keeps the question form people actually type
Definition article	seo terms	what is a canonical tag	One definition per page, in question form
Comparison article	software comparison	crm vs spreadsheet for a small team	Names both sides and the reader
Pricing page	pricing	bookkeeping prices for small business	Adds the service and the buyer, so it can rank at all
Case study	case study	warehouse lighting retrofit case study	The category plus the format people search for
Careers page	jobs	hgv driver jobs in wakefield	Role plus place, which is how candidates search

Read the weak column again. Every one of them is a label a business uses internally. Every entry in the better column is a phrase somebody types into a search box. That is the whole distinction.

The five tests a focus keyword has to pass

• Somebody searches it, in those words. Confirm it exists in a planning tool, in your Search Console query report, or in the search box suggestions. Do not invent a phrase because it sounds professional.
• It carries one intent. "Kettle" covers buying, repairing and descaling. A page can satisfy one of those well.
• No other page of yours already owns it. One focus keyword, one page, for the lifetime of the page.
• It fits naturally in a title and a first sentence. If you have to bend English to include it, the phrase is wrong or the page is.
• You can realistically compete for it now. Search it and look at what ranks. If the first page is all national brands and your site is three months old, pick the longer, more specific version and win that first.

Where the focus keyword goes

Place	What to do
Title tag	Include it, preferably near the front, inside a title that reads like a sentence a person wrote
H1	Include it or a close variant, once
First paragraph	In the first sentence or two, because that is where the direct answer belongs anyway
One subheading	In one h2, where it is genuinely the topic of that section
URL slug	The phrase, lower case, words separated, nothing else
Meta description	Once, in a written sentence that gives the reader a reason to click
Image alt text	Only where it honestly describes the image
Internal links	Use the phrase as anchor text on two or three links from related pages

That is the complete list. Repeating the phrase beyond this adds nothing a reader values, and a page that reads as if it were written for a counter loses the reader who arrived.

Variants, synonyms and the words around the phrase

Write naturally and the related words appear on their own. A page whose focus keyword is "how to descale a kettle" will mention limescale, vinegar, citric acid, filters and hard water because it has to in order to be useful. Yoast Premium and Rank Math both let you record synonyms and related phrases so the analysis does not penalise natural writing. Use that field for the obvious variants, singular and plural, and British and American spellings where both are searched.

One focus keyword per page, and how to fix it when you broke the rule

Two pages written for the same phrase split the signal and usually both sit lower than one strong page would. Find it in twenty minutes:

1. Open Search Console, go to the performance report and filter by the query.
2. Switch to the Pages view with the filter still applied. If two or three of your URLs appear for the same query, you have a conflict.
3. Decide which URL should own it, usually the one with the most links and impressions.
4. Merge the useful content from the others into the winner, redirect the losers to it, and change their focus keywords if you keep them.
5. Update the internal links so the anchor text points the new way.

Keep a one line record per page

The reason sites end up with conflicts is that nobody wrote the assignments down. Keep a sheet with five columns: URL, focus keyword, search intent, secondary phrases, and the date it was last reviewed. Before anybody writes a new page, they check the sheet. This single habit prevents most of the cannibalisation work above, and it makes the quarterly review a reading exercise rather than an investigation. The method for filling that sheet in the first place is in keyword research in five steps.

What gets asked about focus keyword examples

What is the difference between a focus keyword and a focus keyphrase?

Nothing in practice. Yoast renamed its field to focus keyphrase to make the point that it is normally several words rather than one, and Rank Math calls it a focus keyword. Both mean the phrase the page is written to answer.

How long should a focus keyword be?

Usually two to five words. One word is almost always too broad to win and too vague to write to. Very long phrases are easy to rank for and are worth taking when they match a real question, which is why question shaped focus keywords work so well on articles.

Can one page target several keywords?

A page ranks for many phrases, and that is normal and good. It is written for one. Set the primary phrase as the focus keyword, list the close variants as secondary phrases in your sheet, and let the body cover them naturally. Setting two focus keywords on one page is how you end up with a page that answers neither clearly.

Does keyword density matter?

Write for the reader and the density looks after itself. Plugins show a density figure as a rough guide to whether the page is recognisably about the phrase, and the useful checks are the structural ones: the phrase in the title, the opening, a subheading and the slug.

Should the focus keyword be an exact match in the title?

Include it as written where English allows, because it is the clearest possible statement of what the page answers. Where an exact insertion would make the title clumsy, use a close variant and keep the exact phrase in the first paragraph and the slug.

How do I pick a focus keyword for a brand new site?

Take the most specific version of each phrase, including place names, product specifics and question forms. Those are winnable now and they bring buyers rather than browsers. Revisit the broader phrases once the specific pages are earning impressions.

The query without a volume number

A keyword tool reports what people type into a search box. A growing share of buyers type a full sentence into an assistant instead, describe their situation and ask who to use, and the reply names two or three businesses. No volume figure exists for that sentence. You still find it in the same places as the keyword: customer emails, sales calls and your own site search. Turn your twelve focus keywords into twelve such sentences, ask each in an assistant, and compare who is named with who ranks. AI Knows Us measures which assistants name a business for questions like these.