How to Add SEO Keywords in HTML

To add SEO keywords in HTML, put the page’s main phrase in six places: the <title> element in the head, the meta description, the H1 and a few H2 headings, the first paragraph and the body copy, the image alt text and file names, and the URL slug. The title, the H1 and the opening copy carry the most weight, while the description, alt text and slug should simply describe the page accurately. There is no special keyword field. The meta keywords tag that many tutorials still show has no effect on Google at all, so the work is in writing those six places so a person reads them as a clear description of one topic, which is also how Google reads them. This guide shows the code for each place, what Google’s own documentation says about it, and how to check the result on a live page.

Start with one phrase per page

Before touching any code, decide which search phrase the page is for. Each page should answer one main question, so it gets one primary phrase and a handful of close variants, and a second topic gets its own page. If two pages on the same site answer the same question in much the same way, they can compete with each other, so it usually makes sense to pick the stronger page and give the other one a different job. Good keyword research settles this early, because it shows which phrases people actually type and which variants belong together.

Once the phrase is chosen, keep the wording natural. Google’s SEO Starter Guide says that excessively repeating the same words, even in variations, is tiring for users and that keyword stuffing is against Google’s spam policies. In practice that means using the main phrase where it accurately describes the page, above all in the title, the main heading and the opening, using related words wherever they read better, and never adding a word only because a tool counted it.

The title element

The <title> element sits in the <head> of the page and is the strongest place for the main phrase. Google usually shows it as the clickable headline in search results, which Google calls the title link. Put the phrase near the start, describe the page in plain words, and add the brand at the end with a separator. The examples in this guide use an illustrative Calgary furnace repair company called Example Heating:

<head>
  <title>Furnace Repair in Calgary: Same-Week Service | Example Heating</title>
</head>

Google’s documentation on title links says there is no limit on how long a title element can be, although the title is truncated in search results as needed, typically to fit the device width. The familiar figure of about 50 to 60 characters is a display guideline, not a rule, and a clear 65-character title is better than a cramped 50-character one. The same page warns against keyword stuffing in titles, giving “Foobar, foo bar, foobars, foo bars” as an example that does not help users. There is more detail on how title tags work in a separate guide.

Google also says it looks at various sources when it creates a title link, including the main visual title, heading elements and other large, prominent text. That is why the title and the H1 should agree. When they describe the same topic in similar words, Google has less reason to write its own headline, and when they disagree, a rewrite is more likely.

The meta description

The meta description also lives in the head. It does not move rankings, and Google said so directly in 2009 when it wrote that it sometimes uses the description meta tag for snippets but does not use it in ranking. It still matters, because a description that matches the search can become the snippet under your title and help someone decide to click:

<meta name="description" content="Furnace repair in Calgary for gas and electric systems. Same-week visits in most neighbourhoods, upfront estimates and licensed technicians.">

Google’s snippet documentation says snippets are primarily created from the page content, and that Google sometimes uses the meta description if it gives a more accurate summary than text taken from the page. There is no limit on its length, but the snippet is truncated to fit the device, so most writers keep the key point in the first 150 characters or so. Google also asks for unique descriptions, because identical or similar descriptions on every page are not helpful when several of your pages appear in results. Include the main phrase once, since it describes the page, and spend the rest of the text on what makes the page worth opening.

Headings and the first paragraph

Headings are written in the body with <h1> to <h6>. Use one H1 that states the topic, ideally with the main phrase or a close variant, and use H2 headings for the sections a reader would scan for. A heading that would read naturally with a keyword in it should get one, and a heading that would read awkwardly should not:

<h1>Furnace Repair in Calgary</h1>
<p>Example Heating repairs gas and electric furnaces across Calgary, usually within the same week...</p>
<h2>Common furnace problems in a Calgary winter</h2>
<h2>What a repair visit includes</h2>

Google’s SEO Starter Guide makes a point that most heading advice misses. It says that headings in semantic order are fantastic for screen readers, but that from Google Search’s perspective it does not matter if you use them out of order, and that there is no ideal number of headings. Keep a logical H1, H2, H3 structure for readers and accessibility, and stop worrying about whether a theme put a sidebar title in an H4.

The opening paragraph should use the main phrase too, ideally in its first or second sentence, because it tells a visitor straight away what the page covers, and since Google builds most snippets from page content, a direct opening often supplies good snippet text. The rest of the body copy then fills in the topic. Google reads all of the visible text, so a page that explains furnace repair properly will naturally use “furnace repair”, “furnace not heating”, “igniter”, “heat exchanger” and similar words without anyone planning them. Write the page the way an expert would explain it to a customer, and the related vocabulary takes care of itself.

Images: alt text and file names

Google can read images to a point, since its Google Images documentation says it uses alt text along with computer vision algorithms and the contents of the page to understand what an image shows. Alt text is still the most important image attribute you control, and it also serves people who use screen readers. Describe what the picture actually shows, and include the keyword only when it is part of that description:

<img src="calgary-furnace-repair-technician.webp"
     alt="Technician replacing a furnace igniter in a Calgary basement"
     width="1200" height="675">

The same documentation asks for descriptive file names and warns that filling alt attributes with keywords gives a negative user experience and may cause the site to be seen as spam. A file called IMG_4471.jpg tells Google nothing, while a short descriptive name in plain words helps a little and costs nothing. Give each image its own alt text, and leave decorative images with an empty alt="" so screen readers skip them.

The URL slug and link anchors

The slug is the readable part of the address, such as /furnace-repair-calgary/. Google’s URL structure guide recommends readable words rather than long ID numbers, so a short slug that names the topic is good practice. Its weight in ranking is small, though: the SEO Starter Guide says keywords in the domain name or URL path alone have hardly any effect beyond appearing in breadcrumbs. Set a clean slug when the page is created, and do not change an established URL just to add a keyword, since a URL change means a redirect, updated internal links and a period while Google processes the move, all for a word that barely counts.

Anchor text is the clickable text of a link, written inside <a href="...">. When other pages on your site link to this one, words that describe the destination help both readers and Google understand where the link goes, so “furnace repair in Calgary” is more useful than “click here”. Vary the wording across links and keep each anchor as part of a normal sentence.

The meta keywords tag and other places that do nothing

The tag most people picture when they search for this topic looks like this:

<meta name="keywords" content="furnace repair, calgary furnace, heating repair">

Google’s list of supported meta tags puts it under unsupported tags and says it is not used by Google Search and has no effect on indexing and ranking at all. Google’s 2009 post on the subject said it had already ignored the tag for years. Google ignores an old one, so removing it is not required for Google Search, but writing new ones is wasted time, and a list of keywords sitting in the source can hand competitors your target list. There is a fuller explanation of why Google ignores the meta keywords tag and where the old advice came from.

Two other places get the same kind of hopeful attention. Structured data, written as JSON-LD in a <script type="application/ld+json"> block, helps Google understand what kind of page it is and can make a page eligible for some rich results, but stuffing a keyword list into it does nothing useful. Hidden text, such as keywords in white on a white background, is a spam tactic that Google names in its policies. Keywords for Google Ads campaigns are a separate matter too: they are entered in the Google Ads account, not in the HTML, although the page still counts, because landing page experience, one of the parts of Quality Score, reflects how relevant and useful the page is to people who click the ad.

Adding keywords in WordPress and checking the result

Most small business sites are built on a content management system, so the owner rarely types a <title> by hand. In WordPress with the Yoast SEO plugin, the title and meta description are fields in the Yoast box under the editor, the slug is set in the post settings, the H1 usually comes from the post title through the theme, and alt text is entered when the image is added to the media library. Other systems such as Wix and Squarespace have similar fields, and Google’s snippet documentation suggests searching for your CMS name plus “add meta tags” to find them.

Whichever route you take, check what the published page actually outputs, because themes and plugins sometimes add a second H1, repeat the site name in the title or leave an old description in place. Open the page, choose “View page source” (Ctrl+U in most browsers), and search for <title>, name="description" and <h1. For the version Google saw, use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console and click “View crawled page”, which shows the HTML Google fetched. Then search Google for the page itself to see which title and snippet appear, keeping in mind that both can change from one query to another.

Where keyword placement stops helping

Putting keywords in the right HTML elements tells Google what a page is about, and getting it wrong can leave a good page misread. It is still only the clearest signal of the topic, not a reason for Google to prefer your page over others on that topic. Once the title, headings, opening and images all describe one subject in plain language, the gains come from the content answering the question better than the pages above it, from the site being easy to crawl, and from other sites linking to it, and Google gives no fixed timetable for any of it.

If the placement looks right and a page still does not move, the cause is usually elsewhere: two pages competing for the same phrase, a template that outputs the wrong title, or a page that is thin compared with what ranks. A site audit checks those across every page at once. SEO Company To-The-TOP! has worked on Calgary websites since 2007, with one expert doing the work, and can review how your pages use their keywords if you would like a second look.