A search query can have multiple keywords in it. Keyword Proximity refers to the distance between individual keywords or phrases in the search term.
In simpler terms, it means how close keywords are to each other in a piece of content. The closer the keywords or the lesser the distance between them means the more relevancy from SEO point of view.
Let’s understand this with an example:
If a website rank for the search query “vegan food recipes” with title “54 Best Recipes To Cook The Vegan Food You’ll Love”, the proximity between:
- “vegan” and “food” = one word
- “food” and “recipes” = four words
The smaller the distance, the more the preference.
Or, Keyword Proximity is the best when it is minimum and that is 1.
But, that’s not compulsory all the time. There are tons of other factors too that search engines consider and Keyword Proximity is just one of them.
Let’s take another example:
- Anti acne diet: What to eat for clearer skin?
- Can the right diet get rid of acne?
The phrase acne diet has better keyword proximity in the first example. So, if everything else is the same, the first example will definitely rank higher for the keyword phrase acne diet on search engines.