How to add keywords to your website (without making it feel forced)

You’ve probably heard that keywords are the backbone of SEO.

They’re how search engines connect your website to the people looking for your services. But when it comes to actually adding them, things can get confusing. Where should they go? How many should you use? And how do you make sure your site still sounds natural to visitors?

Here’s a simple guide that shows you how to add keywords to your website in a way that helps your visibility in search results and keeps your content sounding professional.

Step 1: choose SEO keywords with clear search intent

Before you can select keywords, you need to know which ones matter.

Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush can give you insights from search results. You can see the search volumes and difficulty scores for each keyword or phrase.

The sweet spot is finding keywords with enough demand to be worthwhile, but not so competitive that you’ll never rank.

Think about what your audience actually types into Google. What problems are they trying to solve?

For example, “affordable website refresh UK” is far more specific and useful than “website design.”

Step 2: place keywords or keyword phrases where they count

Once you have a target keyword, use it in strategic spots across your site.

Search engines pay closer attention to certain areas:

• Page titles (H1 tags): Your keyword should feature here, ideally at the start.
• Meta descriptions: Not a direct ranking factor, but including the keyword can boost click-throughs.
• Headings (H2s and H3s): Helps both readers and search engines understand your content.
• First 100 words of body text: Google sees that content as an early signal of relevance.
• URLs: Clean, keyword-rich URLs work better than vague ones.
• Alt text for images: Useful for accessibility and helps Google index your visuals.
• Linking pages: Add links to other useful pages - this can help keep visitors on your website. When adding a link, keep the anchor text (the visible text on the link) relevant to the page. This means instead of saying 'click here' try adding a keyword or two to direct visitors - and tell Google what your page is doing!

Step 3: balance SEO keywords with natural website copy

The main focus when selecting the best keywords should be to help search engines understand your content - but that doesn't mean selecting every keyword there is! Keyword stuffing is an old-school tactic that does more harm than good.

If your site reads unnaturally, people will bounce away, and search engines will notice.

You should be writing your content for humans - not search engines.

A good test is to read your page out loud. If it sounds forced, cut back. If you're struggling to add keywords, you might benefit from adding new content to that blog post, or creating a new one to cover that content.

Step 4: use SEO keyword variations and context

Search engines are smart enough to understand related phrases.

If your main keyword is “how to add keywords to your website,” you might also use “optimising content for SEO” or “keyword placement guide.”

This makes your page more natural and covers different search queries at the same time. You can also extend a keyword into what's called a 'long tail' keyword. This adds a bit more description that can help your audience find the content they're looking for.

Step 5: make it part of a bigger SEO strategy

Adding keywords is one part of the puzzle.

You also need high-quality content, technical SEO, and consistent updates to really make a difference to your website traffic. That’s where extra help can save you hours.

There are also a few tools available (for free) that can help you monitor your website analytics such as Google Search Console and Google Analytics.

If you want to boost your rankings without second-guessing every keyword, take a look at our SEO visibility boost service. It’s designed to help small businesses grow traffic by focusing on the right keywords and turning them into real results.

And if you’ve already nailed the basics but still aren’t seeing the results you want, check out our guide on on-page SEO analysis. It’s the natural next step to understand why you might not be ranking yet and what to do about it.

Another key factor that often gets overlooked is site speed.

A slow-loading website can undo all your keyword efforts by frustrating visitors and lowering your search visibility. To tackle this, we’ve put together practical advice on improving performance — see our blog on how to get your website loading faster.