How to identify and eliminate keyword cannibalization to improve your SEO

Do you have multiple pages on your website ranking for the same keyword?

This may sound like a good thing.

After all, the more pages you have in search results, the more impressions you will get from search users, right?

Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Targeting specific terms across multiple pages can have the opposite effect. For this keyword, your SEO may do more harm than good.

The reason is simple-when you have multiple pages ranking for the same keyword, you will force your pages to compete with each other.

Therefore, the click-through rate, permissions, and conversion rate of each page are lower compared with the merged pages.

We call it SEO mistakes Keyword cannibalization.

What is keyword cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization is called this because you “cannibalize” your results by splitting CTR, links, content, and (usually) conversions between two pages that should be one.

When you do this, you are not showing Google the breadth or depth of your knowledge. You also did not increase the site’s authority for this query.

Instead, you ask Google to weigh your pages against each other and choose the pages that it thinks are the most suitable for matching keywords.

For example, suppose your website sells shoes, and [shoes] Is the only keyword you are targeting. You are actually telling Google that whether they are hiking shoes, tennis shoes, sports shoes, etc., every page is related to shoes.

Instead of using many valuable long-tail keywords (such as women’s shoes, running shoes, etc.), you are competing with yourself for a keyword that may be too broad for commercial intent.

Keyword cannibalization may have 6 negative effects on your SEO

Keyword cannibalization can have disastrous consequences for your SEO. Many people who suffer from keyword cannibalization do not even realize that there is a problem.

They might even be happy to have a page that ranks fifth and sixth in their target keywords without realizing that an authoritative page might rank higher and convert better.

The actual consequences are obvious. However, loss of website traffic, query leading to error pages, fluctuations in SERP rankings, and loss of final sales can also be caused and more difficult to detect.

why?

because…

You are reducing the authority of the page

You are not having a highly authoritative page, but splitting the click-through rate among multiple moderately relevant pages.

Essentially, you have turned your web page into a competitor, and now you are fighting for page views and SERP rankings.

Consider from the perspective of readers looking for new books on Amazon. Do you want an in-depth book on topics that showcase your expertise?

Or would you prefer to have two or more incomplete books on a subject, each of which makes you wish for more information?

You are diluting your links and anchor text

Backlinks that could go to a comprehensive information source are now split into two (or more) pages.

The outreach effort to get 10 links for one page and 15 links for another page could have got 25 links for a better performing page.

In addition, complete, in-depth pages are more likely to be linked to than lighter, less comprehensive sections.

Likewise, your anchor text and internal links direct visitors to multiple different pages instead of one authoritative page on the subject.

Google may belittle more relevant pages

Keywords are one of the main ways we help Google understand the content of our web pages.

If all your keywords are the same, Google will try to understand which page is best for you-if your content is too similar, errors may occur.

For example, suppose you have two pages ranking for the same keyword. If the higher conversion page ranks lower, you may miss high-value conversion traffic.

You are wasting your crawl budget

yours Crawl budget It is the number of times search engine spiders crawled your website in a given period of time.

Dedicating multiple pages to the same keyword will result in crawling and indexing of unwanted pages.

notes: Small sites may not notice the difference or worry about their crawl budget, but large e-commerce sites or vendors with multiple products may.

This is a sign of poor page quality

Multiple pages for the same keyword tell your users that your content may be stretched very finely. It also sends a signal to Google that your content may not match the keywords on each page.

Your conversion rate will be affected

Inevitably, one of your pages will convert better than the others.

Instead of directing new visitors to the page and making it the most authoritative page, it’s losing potential customers when they land on less relevant pages.

How to identify keyword cannibalization

Fortunately, once the problem is identified, fixing the keyword cannibalization is easy.

Identifying keyword cannibalization is as simple as creating a keyword matrix.

Just create a spreadsheet that lists all the important URLs of your website and their related keywords.

For example, if your website sells shoes, your spreadsheet might look like this:

Alternatively, you can use the keyword mapping tool, which might look like this:

Author screenshot

After listing the URL and its keywords, run down the list and look for any duplicate entries.

If you find any-especially on core pages-you may be suffering from keyword cannibalization.

Now it’s time to fix these pages!

Please note that if the meta information in the title tag seems to target the same keywords, keyword cannibalization may even occur, so please check them carefully.

If you are using a ranking tracking tool, you may also want to take this opportunity to search for condensed content and keywords that have been incorrectly applied to the error page.

Now is a good time to give your website a bit of TLC.

How to fix keyword cannibalization

How you solve the keyword cannibalization problem depends on the source of the problem.

Normally, the problem is just an organizational problem. But particularly stubborn situations may require you to break a 301 or a new landing page.

Here are five possible solutions.

1. Reorganize your website

The simplest solution is usually to convert your most authoritative page into a landing page that links to other unique variants within the scope of the target keyword.

If we go back to our footwear product example, it might make sense to use “shoes” as our canonical source page and link all the more specific variants back to it.

2. Create a new landing page

Or, you may be missing a landing page that consolidates all product pages into one place.

In this case, you will benefit from creating a unique landing page as your authoritative source page and linking to all your variants from there.

In our example, we might create a page called “hiking shoes” and another page called “sneakers for men”.

These should allow you to target broad keyword terms for the long tail keywords on your merged pages and variations.

3. Integrate your content

If your page is not unique enough to guarantee that multiple pages target the same keyword, please consider combining them into one page.

This is an opportunity to turn two poorly performing pages into a more authoritative source. It can also solve the problem of scarcity of content.

Start with your analysis to determine which page performs best in terms of traffic, bounce rate, time on page, conversion rate, etc. You may find that one page receives most of the traffic, but the content of another page can convert more users.

In this case, the goal may be to merge the converted copy content onto the page with the most traffic. Ideally, you will be able to maintain the same ranking and convert more traffic.

Another benefit of this method is that you don’t have to worry about your website’s Google content consider Thinly Or cookie cutter.

4. Find new keywords

Finally, if you already have highly diverse, content-rich pages, and the only thing your website is affected is poor keyword strategy planning, then all you may need to do is find new keywords.

Just make sure that your keywords accurately describe the content of your page. Will website visitors searching for the target keyword be satisfied with the content on each page they rank for?

If the answer is no, then it may be time for some keyword research.

Viewing the pages in a spreadsheet with the following details can help you discover better keyword opportunities for similar pages:

• Keywords and ranking.
• URL of the page.
• SEO title and meta description.
• Word count.
• Organic traffic.
• Bounce Rate.
• Conversion.

This should help you find pages that target the same keywords.

From there, you can determine which pages are the most valuable, which can be merged, and which require new keywords.

In most cases, you can use the keyword research tool to find the most relevant keywords for all the pages you want to keep.

If you have two pages that rank well for long-tail keywords, check to see if there are related broad terms that you can focus on to get more traffic.

After finding the keyword, re-optimize it accordingly and update the detailed information in the spreadsheet for future reference and tracking performance.

5. Use 301 redirect

Although I usually advise against using too many 301 redirects (see My list of 10 most harmful mobile SEO mistakes), if you already have multiple pages ranking for the same term, they may be necessary.

Using 301s allows you to integrate your cannibalized content by linking less relevant pages to a more authoritative version.

But remember, this strategy only applies to pages with similar content and pages that match specific keyword queries.

in conclusion

These five solutions will solve most keyword cannibalization situations. Nevertheless, if you manage an e-commerce website, you should pay special attention to how your CMS separates products of different sizes and colors.

Some CMS programs create separate pages for each product variant.

If your CMS is organizing such products, you should use robots.txt to restrict duplicate pages from being indexed, or <元名稱=”機器人”內容=”noindex”> Tag, or you should use Canonical URL Incorporate link signals for duplicate content.

Keyword cannibalization is more common today than ever.

Ironically, its victims are usually webmasters who recognize the importance of SEO to their business. However, although they intend to optimize their website, they do not fully understand how to “speak” Google’s language.

Fortunately, if your site is cannibalizing its target keywords, the solution is not difficult—and the damage is not permanent.

With the right tools and a “can do” attitude, you can bring a well-deserved boost to your SEO.

Featured image: Paulo Bobita/SearchEngineJournal