Are you familiar with co-occurrence analysis? If not, you’re missing out on a solid opportunity to do an end-run around Google’s increasingly stingy policies regarding keyword data.
Co-occurrence analysis, or content quality analysis as it’s sometimes called, gives web publishers a slightly more robust view into the keywords that are driving traffic to their sites. Even better, this technique can help you tailor high quality content that gives you an edge against your competition.
In a recent posting on SearchEngineLand.com titled, How Content Quality Analysis Works with SEO, SEO consultant Erik Enge took in-depth look at how co-occurrence analysis works. Here are a few of his insights that casino affiliates might want to consider.
What is Co-Occurrence Analysis?
Co-occurrence analysis is a fancy way of describing a full word analysis of your content, not just the keywords you’re fighting desperately to dominate.
At its simplest, this is just the act of creating a spreadsheet that tracks how often each word is used in your content. (Enge suggests leaving out modifiers like “a”, “the” and “and” that search engines aren’t likely to pick up.)
Once you’ve established the frequency of usage in your own content, you can start comparing and contrasting your content with your competitor’s content. You can chart your data on a standard graph comparing the occurrences of relevant keywords to page ranking.
This process can be time-consuming, but it can also reveal those subtle differences that place your competition on page one and you on page two.
This is Keyword Density, Right?
If you’re thinking that co-occurrence analysis sounds a heck of a lot like someone’s revisiting the debunked debate over keyword density, you’re hardly alone. The big difference here is that co-occurrence analysis looks at a much bigger picture.
Or, as Enge says, “This is not about one single phrase being repeated over and over again on the web page. It is much more sophisticated than all of that.”
As an example, Enge points out that e-commerce content that fails to mention shipping keywords, may not rank as well as similar content that does include that kind of information.
Putting the Pieces Together
The holistic approach towards keyword evaluation Enge endorses can breath new depth into your content and presents a win-win for content producers and consumers. If you’re stuck in a keyword rut, co-occurrence analysis might offer a fresh approach.