How to Add Keywords in WordPress (With and Without Plugins)

Search for how to add keywords in WordPress and nearly every result teaches the same thing: add a filter to functions.php, enable custom fields, create a field called keywords, type your keywords into it. It works. The tag appears in your source code. Nothing happens.

Google announced in 2009 that it does not use the meta keywords tag as a ranking signal, and that has not changed. Bing treats it at best as a spam indicator. The tutorials are technically accurate and answer a question that has been obsolete for over fifteen years.

The question underneath is a real one, though: where do keywords go in WordPress so that a page ranks for them? That has a specific, checkable answer. This guide covers both, starting with the version that works, because if you only read one section it should be that one. The functions.php method is here too, done properly, for the cases where you genuinely need it.

The seven places keywords actually belong

None of these require a plugin. All of them are editable from the standard WordPress editor.

Location	Where in WordPress	Weight	The mistake people make
Title tag	Post title, or SEO plugin title field	High	Burying the term at the end after brand name
URL slug	Permalink, under the title in the editor	Moderate	Leaving the auto-generated slug full of stop words
H1	The post title, rendered by the theme	High	Adding a second H1 in a page builder block
First 100 words	Opening paragraph	Moderate	Three sentences of preamble before the topic appears
H2 and H3 subheadings	Heading blocks	Moderate	Clever headings that name nothing searchable
Image alt text	Media library, or the block sidebar	Low, plus accessibility	Leaving it blank, or stuffing every image with the same phrase
Internal link anchors	Links from your other posts	Moderate and underrated	Linking with click here instead of the topic

The last row is the one that gets ignored and the one you have most control over. Every internal link you write is a statement about what the destination page is about, in words you choose. Ten existing posts linking to a new page with descriptive anchor text is a stronger signal than any amount of on-page adjustment to the page itself.

How to do it, step by step, with no plugins

1. Pick one primary phrase per page. Not five. A page that targets five phrases usually ranks for none, because nothing on it is unambiguously about any of them.
2. Put that phrase in the post title, as close to the front as reads naturally. WordPress uses the title as both the H1 and, absent a plugin, the title tag.
3. Trim the slug to the phrase itself. Click Edit next to the permalink in the editor sidebar. Three to five words is plenty.
4. Use the phrase in the first sentence or two, in a sentence that would exist anyway. If it reads like it was inserted, it was.
5. Write subheadings that name things. Use the variations and questions people actually search, which are visible in the People Also Ask box and the related searches at the bottom of the results page.
6. Write real alt text describing each image. The accessibility benefit is the point; the keyword benefit is incidental and small.
7. Go back and link to the new page from three or four existing posts, using descriptive anchor text. This is the step everyone skips and it is the one with the most leverage.

That is the entire method. No plugin, no custom field, no meta tag.

What about WordPress tags?

A persistent misunderstanding deserves its own section. WordPress tags are not SEO keywords. They are a taxonomy for organising content, and each one generates an archive page listing the posts assigned to it.

Adding fifteen tags to a post does not tell Google what the post is about. It creates up to fifteen thin archive pages, each listing one post, competing with that post in the index. The recommendation is straightforward: use tags sparingly, only where a tag will eventually group a meaningful number of posts, and noindex tag archives unless a specific one earns traffic on its own.

The meta keywords method, done correctly

There are legitimate reasons to want this tag. Some internal site search tools read it, certain regional search engines historically used it, and some enterprise content audits require it. If one of those applies, here is the implementation. If none does, skip this section, because the tag will not help you.

The version circulating in most tutorials outputs the custom field value unescaped and unvalidated, which puts user-controlled data straight into your document head. This one escapes it.

// Add to a child theme functions.php or a small custom plugin.
// Never to a parent theme, which updates will overwrite.

function tc_output_meta_keywords() {
    if ( ! is_singular() ) {
        return;
    }

    $keywords = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'keywords', true );

    if ( empty( $keywords ) ) {
        return;
    }

    printf(
        '<meta name="keywords" content="%s" />' . "\n",
        esc_attr( $keywords )
    );
}
add_action( 'wp_head', 'tc_output_meta_keywords' );

Three things this does that the common version does not: it bails out on anything that is not a single post or page, so archives do not inherit a stale value; it exits quietly when the field is empty rather than printing an empty tag; and it runs the value through esc_attr() before output.

Then enable custom fields in the editor. In the block editor, open the three-dot menu at the top right, choose Preferences, then Panels, and switch on Custom fields. The page reloads with a Custom Fields panel below the content. Add a field named keywords with a comma-separated value.

Where an SEO plugin genuinely helps

You do not need one to add keywords. There are three things a plugin does that you cannot do from the standard editor, and they are worth having.

• A title tag separate from the H1. Without a plugin these are the same string. Being able to write a longer, clearer H1 and a tighter title tag that fits the search result is a real advantage.
• Meta descriptions. Not a ranking factor, but it is the text under your link in the results. It determines whether the ranking you earned turns into a visit.
• Automatic redirects on slug changes, which prevents the most common self-inflicted SEO injury in WordPress.

The focus keyword field and its traffic-light score are the features people fixate on and the least important. It checks whether your phrase appears in a list of locations. It cannot assess whether the page answers the question, which is the part that decides the outcome.

Keyword stuffing, and the line

Nobody publishes a target keyword density any more because there is not one. The practical test is simpler than any number: read the page aloud. If a phrase appears in a way a person would not say it, or the same phrase lands three times in a paragraph, that is stuffing, and it is an explicit spam policy violation rather than merely bad writing.

Variations are better than repetition. A page about adding keywords in WordPress should also contain words like meta description, slug, permalink, alt text and title tag, because those are the terms a page genuinely about the topic would contain. Covering the subject properly produces the right vocabulary as a side effect, which is the whole reason topical coverage outperforms phrase repetition.

A checklist before you publish

• One primary phrase chosen, and it appears in the title.
• Slug trimmed to that phrase, edited before publishing.
• Phrase appears naturally in the first two sentences.
• Exactly one H1. Subheadings are H2, with H3 nested under them.
• Every image has alt text that describes the image.
• At least three internal links in, from existing posts, with descriptive anchors.
• Tags used sparingly or not at all.
• Read aloud once. Nothing sounds inserted.

The broader technical picture, including which of these WordPress already handles for you, is in our guide to whether WordPress is good for SEO, and if you decide the plugin route is worth it, essential WordPress plugins compares the options without the affiliate framing.

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