In content marketing, it’s important to understand collocations, as they are crucial for creating SEO -effective content.

By consciously incorporating collocations into your content, you can improve the chances of ranking higher for targeted keywords. In this article, we will explain the role of collocations and how to use them correctly.

What Are Collocations? 

Collocations refer to words that frequently appear together with a specific keyword. These words are strongly related to the keyword because they appear simultaneously and frequently both in the context of the keyword and its surrounding text.

For example, with the keyword ‘collocations,’ associated terms might include ‘keyword,’ ‘SEO,’ ‘tools,’ and ‘strategy.’ While the frequency of collocations can vary, they provide clues to understanding user search intent as they often appear together with the search keywords.

Moreover, collocations are considered by Google as a criterion for evaluating expertise and comprehensiveness, so using them appropriately can also enhance SEO effectiveness.

The Role of Collocations 

Collocations are indispensable in content creation, but what roles do they play? The primary roles of collocations are the following three points.

-Enhancing the quality of content

-Making it easier to get evaluated positively by search engines

-Assisting in user understanding

Let’s discuss each of these SEO effects related to collocations.

Enhancing Content Quality 

One of the criteria in Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines is ‘EAT,’ which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Collocations, being highly relevant to the target keywords, enrich the content’s comprehensiveness and expertise when included.

Furthermore, collocations often contain hidden user needs. By incorporating numerous collocations into your content, you can more fully meet user needs, making the content more comprehensive and understandable for users.

By including collocations in your content, Google is more likely to regard it as high-quality content with specialized expertise.

Becomes more likely to be favored by search engines

Evaluated by Search Engines Search engines evaluate pages based not on the text as a whole, but on the keywords within the content. Even if a page has clear and relevant text, if the keywords included are unrelated to the target keywords, it will likely receive a lower SEO rating.

Therefore, including collocations that are highly relevant to the target keywords within your content can accurately convey the page’s content to search engines and make it easier to receive a higher evaluation.

Search engines prioritize content that meets the search needs of users, so high-quality content that includes collocations is more likely to rank higher.

Assisting User Understanding 

Using collocations helps facilitate overall understanding of the text. When content contains many words related to the searched keyword, it helps users visualize what the content is about, enhancing readability.

By understanding what users want to know and including related terms, content becomes broader and deeper in comprehension. Covering a theme or keyword thoroughly ensures the content is of high quality for users.

Collocations are essential for aiding user understanding, so it is important to include them in content along with the target keywords you want to optimize for.

Differences Between Suggest Keywords and Related Keywords 

Collocations are often confused with suggest keywords and related keywords. Understanding the differences between these can be crucial for effectively creating content. Here, we explain the distinctions between each type.

Differences with Suggest Keywords 

Suggest keywords refer to those that are commonly searched in conjunction with a specific keyword. Usually, these appear automatically as predictions when you type a keyword into a search engine’s search box.

For instance, when you search for ‘SEO’, suggested keywords like ‘what is’ and ‘strategy’ appear as commonly combined search terms.

While collocations are words that frequently appear within content related to a specific keyword, suggest keywords are those that are commonly searched together with a specific keyword.

Related Article: Strategies for Suggest Keywords

Differences with Related Keywords 

Related keywords are those that are related to or associated with a specific keyword searched in a search engine. For example, searching for ‘SEO’ might display related keywords such as ‘SEO company’ and ‘What is SEO – simply’ among the top ten suggestions.

Suggest keywords are automatically displayed based on Google’s algorithm, which takes into account words searched by the user in the past and what other users are searching for.

In contrast, related keywords are displayed without being influenced by past searches and include synonyms and equivalent terms as search suggestions.

How to Search for Collocations 

There are primarily two ways to search for collocations.

POINT

-Research using search engines

-Utilizing collocation search tools

The first method involves searching for collocations directly through search engines. By entering a keyword and reviewing the titles and content of the search results, you can identify several related keywords.

Particularly, by examining content that ranks high, you can discern trends in the keywords used.

The second method is to use collocation search tools. These tools analyze content that appears at the top of search results and automatically extract collocations, allowing for quicker and easier research compared to manual efforts. Using tools prevents oversights and enables more advanced analyses, making them recommended for creating effective content.

How to Use Collocations 

Collocations are essential for creating effective content, but how should they be used? There are mainly two scenarios where collocations are frequently employed.

POINT

-Before content creation

-During content rewriting

Let’s explore how to use collocations in each situation.

Before Content Creation 

When preparing to create content, just as you would consider target keywords to draft an article structure, you must also consider collocations to create content that will be well-received by search engines and users.

Extract collocations related to your target keywords and scatter them throughout your content to enhance the comprehensiveness of the information provided.

However, forcing extracted collocations into your content can make the text sound unnatural, so focus on including only those collocations that are relevant to your target keywords.

During Rewriting 

Search engines prioritize fresh content, so it is necessary to update and rewrite articles even after they have been published.

Collocations can change over time, and reviewing them can reveal essential keywords that you might not have previously considered important for your audience.

Adding new collocations and rewriting content help maintain high evaluations from search engines and ensure that the information remains fresh and accurate for users. Also, check the frequency of collocations on competitor sites. If they use collocations more extensively than your site, consider increasing your use of collocations during rewrites.

Top 7 Recommended Tools for Searching Collocations 

Using tools to search for collocations can save time and simplify the process compared to manual searching. There are several collocation search tools available, but here we introduce some highly recommended ones. Many of these tools are free to use, so consider integrating them into your SEO strategies.

Sakura Sakurabo 

Sakura Sakurabo is a high-functionality tool designed to maximize support for SEO and content marketing. Its ‘Collocation Research Tool’ retrieves collocations from search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. It allows for simultaneous research of up to five keywords and ranks them based on the frequency of appearance.

• Tool Name: Sakura Sakurabo
• URL: https://www.sakurasaku-labo.jp/tools/cooccur
• Cost: Free
• Registration: Required

FindWord 

FindWord is a collocation tool that searches for collocations used in the top 10 sites. A unique feature of FindWord is that if you add your own site to the ‘URL to be researched’, it will also suggest keywords that your site is missing. This tool is useful not only for creating content but also for rewriting.

• Tool Name: FindWord
• URL: https://kitsune-room.com/tools/findword/
• Cost: Free
• Registration: Not required

MIERUCA 

MIERUCA is an SEO, content marketing, and owned media analysis service. It is equipped with various features useful for traffic analysis and internal SEO checks. Its collocation search tool, developed through joint research with national universities, aims to eliminate noise and score thematic topics for more accurate extraction, though it is currently only available as a demo version.

• Tool Name: MIERUCA
• URL: https://mieru-ca.com/
• Cost: Free
• Registration: Required

Rakko Keyword 

Rakko Keyword allows you to enter a target keyword and check not only collocations but also related combination keywords and Google Trends. It analyzes texts from the top 20 sites to extract collocations, enabling keyword-based analysis to see if successful SEO sites are covering such topics.

• Tool Name: Rakko Keyword
• URL: https://related-keywords.com/
• Cost: Free
• Registration: Not required

Collocation Analysis Tool 

The Collocation Analysis Tool lists collocations of a target keyword in order of frequency of occurrence. It visualizes the connection between the target keyword and its collocations in a network form, making it user-friendly even for those new to such tools. Another feature is its ability to extract keywords by part of speech.

• Tool Name: Collocation Analysis Tool
• URL: https://contentsearch.jp/cooccur-terms.php
• Cost: Free
• Registration: Not required

Pascal 

Pascal is a convenient tool that comprehensively addresses everything from extracting collocations and analyzing user needs to ensuring content uniqueness. It helps identify common keywords used in top-ranking content and pages for a given target keyword. Pascal uses AI to analyze words with strong connections to users, making it recommended for those seeking more sophisticated analyses.

• Tool Name: Pascal
• URL: https://www.pascaljp.com/feature/contents.html
• Cost: Free trial for 4 days; Paid version starts from ¥45,000 per month
• Registration: Not required

LSI Research 

LSI Research analyzes the top 10 Google search results to display collocations based on their frequency of occurrence. While LSI Research may not have high accuracy in word segmentation and cannot extract words in English, it is distinguished by its ability to retrieve collocations, including adult words. However, since there is a limit on continuous use, it may not be the best tool for searching multiple keywords at once.

• Tool Name: LSI Research
• URL: http://a-rooms.com/lsi/
• Cost: Free
• Registration: Not required

Guidelines for Using Collocations 

Including collocations in content is essential for creating high-quality content, but forcing them can make the content harder to evaluate. Here, we explain the precautions to take when using collocations.

Avoid stuffing collocations unnaturally 

Overemphasis on collocations can lead to unnecessary keyword stuffing and awkward sentences. If the text feels unnatural to readers, it may increase the likelihood of them leaving the page. Collocations should aid in understanding, so ensure the text is easy to read and clear.

Also, intentionally cramming collocations to target SEO effects could be perceived as spam by Google, potentially lowering search rankings. To avoid being seen as low-quality content, it’s crucial to incorporate collocations naturally into well-understood text.

Focus on user-first content

Google places a high priority on user-first content. Content that forcibly uses collocations for SEO effects cannot be considered user-first. It’s essential to focus on creating content that is genuinely beneficial to users when using collocations.

By appropriately sprinkling collocations throughout comprehensive content, you naturally achieve a user-first approach. Content that genuinely serves the user is more likely to be valued by search engines, so be mindful not to create content solely for SEO.

Summary 

While collocations are crucial elements in content creation, incorrect usage can backfire. Utilize the collocation search tools introduced here to create high-quality content that meets user needs. Proper use of collocations can lead to content that is both comprehensive and expertly crafted, thus earning high rankings from search engines. However, the most important aspect is maintaining a user-first approach. Always prioritize creating content that serves the users first and foremost.

Author Profile

Mr. Takeshi Amano, CEO of Admano Co., Ltd.

Mr. Takeshi Amano is a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Nihon University. With 12 years of experience working in the advertising agency industry, he discovered SEO and began his research during the early days of SEO. He self-taught and conducted experiments and verifications on over 100 websites. Using this expertise, he founded Admano Co., Ltd., which is currently in its 11th year of operation. Mr. Amano handles sales, SEO consulting, web analytics (holding the Google Analytics Individual Qualification certification), coding, and website development. The company has successfully managed SEO strategies for over 2000 websites to date.

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