Focus keywords

A focus keyword is the search phrase you want a page to rank for. RankKit SEO uses it to check your SEO title, description, URL, introduction and subheadings, to score the page, and to warn you when two pages compete for the same phrase.

Each post can have as many focus keywords as you need, on Free and Pro. The first one is the main keyword: it drives the page's SEO score. The others are related keywords, each with its own score.

Add focus keywords

1. Open the post in the block editor, click the RankKit SEO button in the editor toolbar and stay in the General section of the RankKit SEO panel (in the Classic Editor, use the RankKit SEO box).
2. In Focus keywords, type a keyword and press Enter. You can also paste several separated by commas.
3. Keep adding related keywords in Add another keyword….
4. Save the post.

The hint under the field reads: "The first keyword is the main keyword. Add as many related keywords as you like."

Change or remove a keyword

• Click the star on any keyword to Make this the main keyword. It moves to the front and gets the main tag.
• Click × to remove a keyword.

Duplicates are ignored, whatever their capitalization.

Get keyword ideas

• Suggest with AI: under the field, AI reads the saved post and suggests 5 keyphrases of 2–5 words that a searcher would type. Click one to add it as the main keyword. Needs an AI provider.
• AI Assistant: under Analysis, Generate with AI adds AI keyword ideas after your existing keywords, together with a title and description. See AI assistant in the editor.
• Search Console queries (Pro): in the Performance section, click a query in Top queries for this page and choose Use as focus keyword. These are phrases the page already gets impressions for.

Scores per keyword

The SEO score in the panel header uses the main keyword. With two or more keywords, the Analysis section lists a score from 0 to 100 for each keyword (in the Classic Editor, the General tab). Expand one to see its keyword checks: in the SEO title, near the start of the title, in the meta description, in the URL slug, in the first paragraph, in a subheading, and keyword density. See Content analysis checks.

Keyword cannibalization

When another post on your site already uses one of your keywords, a Keyword cannibalization warning appears: "“%s” is already targeted by:", with each post, marked main or secondary.

"Pages that target the same keyword compete in search. Pick a distinct main keyword, or merge the pages."

RankKit SEO checks published, scheduled, draft, pending and private posts for an exact match, ignoring case. You only see posts you are allowed to read.

Tip Sharing a related (secondary) keyword is often fine. Two pages with the same main keyword are the real problem: decide which page should rank, and change the other page's main keyword or redirect it.

Find posts without a focus keyword

• In RankKit SEO → Content → SEO editor, filter by Missing focus keyword and add keywords straight from the table's Focus keyword column. See The bulk SEO editor.
• The site audit lists "No focus keyword set" and "Focus keyword missing from the SEO title".

Free and Pro

	Free	Pro
Keywords per post	Unlimited	Unlimited
Score per keyword	Yes	Yes
Cannibalization warning	Yes	Yes
Keyword ideas from Search Console	No	Yes

FAQ

Does the focus keyword get added to the page?

No. Focus keywords are for analysis and planning; they are not printed as a meta keywords tag. They are added to the keywords property of the page's Article schema.

Should every page have a focus keyword?

Every page you want to rank in search should. Utility pages such as contact or checkout don't need one.

Do keywords from Yoast SEO or Rank Math carry over?

Yes. The importer copies the focus keyword from Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO and SEOPress, and up to 5 keywords from Squirrly SEO. See Switch from another SEO plugin.