The standard answer to this question is one primary keyword plus three to five secondary ones.
That advice is repeated almost everywhere, it is not wrong exactly, and it describes a way of thinking about pages that stopped matching how search works.
Here is the more useful version, along with why the density numbers you will see quoted alongside it contradict the available evidence.
The Short Answer
Target one search intent per page. Not one keyword, one intent.
Name a primary keyword for clarity and reporting. Identify a handful of secondary terms that represent the same intent expressed differently. Then write to cover the topic properly.
If you need a number for a brief: one primary and roughly three to five secondary terms is a reasonable working convention.
But that number describes your planning, not what the page will actually rank for. Which brings us to the more important point.
Why the Question Is Slightly Wrong
You do not decide how many keywords a page targets. You decide what the page is about. Search engines decide the rest.
Analysis of large keyword datasets consistently shows that a page ranking well for one term also ranks for hundreds of others, with the average top-ranking page appearing in results for something close to a thousand related queries.
So a page you built for one primary keyword is, in practice, a page competing on hundreds of terms you never listed.
That reframes the job. You are not distributing keywords across a page. You are covering a topic thoroughly enough that the page becomes eligible for the whole cluster of queries around it.
What the Data Says About Keyword Density
You will frequently see “aim for 1–2% keyword density” in the same articles that tell you keyword stuffing is dead. Those two statements do not sit together comfortably.
One analysis of 1,536 Google search results reportedly found no consistent positive correlation between keyword density and rankings, with the top ten results averaging density around 0.04%.
If that figure is even approximately right, then a page hitting a deliberate 1–2% density is using its primary term roughly twenty-five to fifty times more often than pages that actually rank.
The practical instruction: stop counting. Use the primary term where it belongs naturally, then write in normal language. Search engines read context rather than tallying occurrences.
One Intent Per Page, Not One Keyword
The reason the intent framing works better than the keyword count framing is that it tells you what to do when terms overlap.
“Best running shoes for flat feet” and “running shoes flat arches” are the same intent in different words. One page.
“Best running shoes for flat feet” and “how to tell if you have flat feet” are different intents. Two pages.
Ask two questions:
- Would the same page satisfy both searchers? If yes, one page.
- Do the search results for both terms look similar? If Google returns the same kind of content, they belong together.
That second check is more reliable than intuition. Google has already decided what satisfies each query, and the results page shows you the answer.
Where to Place the Primary Term
Placement matters more than frequency.
| Location | Guidance |
|---|---|
| Title tag | Front-load it, keep under about 60 characters |
| H1 | Include it naturally, once |
| First 100 words | Signals what the page is about, early |
| One or two H2s | Where genuinely relevant |
| URL slug | Short and descriptive |
| Image alt text | Only where it describes the image accurately |
| Meta description | Front-load, then give a reason to click |
Two cautions. The title tag is a headline, not a keyword list. The meta description is an advert, not an inventory. Cramming both produces robotic copy that reduces click-through, which costs you more than any placement gain.
How to Choose Secondary Keywords
Secondary keywords should be terms your page will genuinely answer, not terms you would like to rank for.
Good sources:
- People Also Ask boxes for your primary term
- Autocomplete variations
- Search Console queries already generating impressions for that page
- Subtopics that competitors cover and you do not
- Question phrasings of the same need
Then structure the page so each secondary term has a home. A secondary keyword with no corresponding section is not a target, it is a wish.
When Two Keywords Belong on the Same Page
Yes, when they are closely related and share an intent. No, when they are merely adjacent.
The failure mode is trying to serve two intents from one page. The result usually satisfies neither, because the structure has to compromise between two different reader states.
A practical test: could you write a satisfying H1 that covers both? If the honest H1 would be an awkward “X and also Y,” you have two pages.
Keyword Cannibalisation
The opposite problem, and more common than people realise.
Cannibalisation happens when several of your own pages target the same primary keyword. Google cannot determine which is authoritative, and frequently ranks all of them poorly rather than picking one.
A useful analogy from practitioners: two employees standing at the same door shouting the same offer. The message gets weaker, not louder.
How to check: search site:yourdomain.com "your target keyword" and see how many of your pages compete. Or filter Search Console by query and look at how many pages receive impressions for it.
The fix is consolidation. Merge the weaker pages into the strongest, then 301 redirect the old URLs. That concentrates link equity and sends one clear signal.
How Many Keywords Should You Track?
Different question, different answer.
Track your primary keywords, which is where your targeting decisions live. Add secondary terms selectively, mainly where you are already ranking well and want to monitor movement.
Tracking every possible variation produces a large report nobody reads and a bill nobody questions. The list should be short enough that someone reviews every line.
A Worked Example
A landscaping company writing a service page.
Primary keyword: sod installation in a named city
Secondary keywords: lawn replacement, how much sod costs, grass installation near me, sod versus seed
Structure:
- H1 with the primary term
- Opening answer covering what the service is and where
- H2 on cost, answering the cost query
- H2 comparing sod and seed, answering the comparison query
- H2 on process and timeline
- FAQ covering the remaining question variations
One page, one intent, four planned secondary terms, and likely dozens more picked up naturally because the page genuinely covers the topic.
That is the whole method.
Mistakes That Follow From Counting Keywords
- Chasing a density percentage that ranking pages do not exhibit.
- Creating a separate thin page for every keyword variation.
- Stuffing the title tag and meta description with terms.
- Assigning secondary keywords with no corresponding content section.
- Serving two different intents from one page.
- Letting multiple pages compete for the same primary term.
- Treating the planned keyword list as the ceiling rather than the seed.
Where to Start
Open Search Console, filter to one of your important pages, and look at how many distinct queries already send it impressions.
On most reasonable pages that number is in the hundreds. Compare it against the three or four keywords in the brief that page was written from.
That gap is the answer to the question. You were never targeting four keywords. You were covering a topic, and the topic decided the rest.
FAQs
How many keywords should I use per page?
Target one search intent. Name one primary keyword and roughly three to five secondary terms for planning, then cover the topic thoroughly.
What is the ideal keyword density?
There is no ideal. Analysis of ranking pages suggests density is not correlated with rankings, with top results often below 0.1%.
Can one page rank for multiple keywords?
Yes, routinely. A well-covered page commonly ranks for hundreds of related queries beyond the one it was written for.
When should I split content into two pages?
When the two terms represent different search intents, which you can check by comparing whether the search results for each look similar.
What is keyword cannibalisation?
When multiple pages on your site target the same primary keyword, causing search engines to rank all of them poorly rather than choosing one.
