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Say I'm selling software to calculate prime numbers. I'd like to have many similar keywords like "calculate" (prime numbers), "find", "discover", "create a list of", etc. since I expect people to search for all of those terms. Each person and their way of searching. However, as far as I know (and please correct me if I'm wrong):

  1. This might be viewed as "keyword stuffing" and might be penalized.
  2. There's no good place for these words - neither on the viewable page (as it negatively affects user experience), nor in the meta-keywords element (since its importance, as seen by search engines, has been lowered).

Is there some solution to this?

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  • You do not need to do this. Search engines are smarter than this.
    – closetnoc
    Mar 22, 2015 at 23:07
  • @closetnoc Sure, search engines take synonyms into account. But are you saying that if a person searches for create a list of prime numbers he is as likely to see my website, whether I have find prime numbers on the site or create a list of prime numbers there? I'm not so sure about that.
    – ispiro
    Mar 23, 2015 at 18:23
  • I guess I could have been clearer. My apologies. You can use your primary phrase in you title tag, description meta-tag, and h1 tag in varying formats of course, but where the variations might be useful are on other header tags and within content. I was not suggesting not using the variations, but not within a single tag- it might be best to keep your primary tags title, description, and h1 clean and targeted toward the most commonly used phrase. We get the synonym question here a lot and people focus too much on them. But your case may be a little different.
    – closetnoc
    Mar 23, 2015 at 19:09
  • I rather suspect that back-links would be the best place for these variations if you can manage that.
    – closetnoc
    Mar 23, 2015 at 19:11

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You need to create lots of content around prime numbers and your software. You could have:

  • Feature lists for your software
  • User documentation that describes how your software is used
  • Use cases that describe how your software could be used in hypothetical situations
  • Questions that your customers have asked along with the answers you have provided
  • Online demos that allow visitors to preview the software in limited ways
  • General information about prime numbers
  • Testimonials from customers recommending your software
  • Comparison of your software to other software
  • Bug reports against your software (including versions in which fixed problems were fixed)
  • API documentation for how your software could be used by other programmers
  • Developer notes or a blog describing challenges encountered writing the software

As you add tens of related pages you then have ample opportunity to use all the synonyms in ways that are natural. You also show Google that you are an expert and that your site deserves recognition as an authority on the subject.

From a marketing standpoint, make sure that every page has a clear, prominent call to action to get users to buy the software. "Download now" or "Start your free trial", or "Buy now".

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Google already looks at synonyms. If you're using "Calculate Prime Numbers" to describe the software on page, you can still rank for find, discover, etc.

(Minor note, I know this is a theoretical, but it would be easy to fit in "create a list of" on the page with natural language.)

And yes, meta keywords are all but obsolete, they're only used to look for keyword stuffing, not to understand the website.

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  • Sure, search engines take synonyms into account. But are you saying that if a person searches for create a list of prime numbers he is as likely to see my website, whether I have find prime numbers on the site or create a list of prime numbers there? I'm not so sure about that.
    – ispiro
    Mar 23, 2015 at 18:21
  • Be sure. You're not going to rank for everything all the time. But putting every variation of keywords on a webpage will only hurt you. Keywords aren't a big deal anymore for organic search. It's a great way to understand how users are searching, but you should not try to match them exactly all the time.
    – Ethan
    Mar 24, 2015 at 19:09
  • @Ethan yes you are right spending lot of time in minute things may some times will not give us good results. But I have a doubt actually who will succeed in seoing their site ? those who focus on keyword and synonyms or those who ignore them ?
    – Sagar
    Jun 10, 2015 at 5:18

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