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Boost Your SEO: How To Identify & Eliminate Keyword Cannibalization

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Keyword cannibalization is a common SEO issue that occurs when a website has multiple pages targeting the same keyword or topic. This can confuse search engines and lower the ranking potential of each page. In this blog post, we will explain what keyword cannibalization is, how to identify it, and how to eliminate it from your website.

What is keyword cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization is the situation where two or more pages on the same website compete for the same keyword or search intent. For example, if you have a website about gardening, and you have two pages with the titles "How to Grow Tomatoes" and "Tomato Growing Tips", you are essentially cannibalizing your own traffic and authority by splitting them between two pages.

Why is keyword cannibalization bad for SEO?

Keyword cannibalization can have several negative effects on your SEO performance, such as:

  • - Diluting your page authority: When you have multiple pages targeting the same keyword, you are spreading your link juice and social signals across them, instead of concentrating them on one authoritative page. This can reduce the ranking power of each page and make it harder for them to outrank competitors.
  • - Confusing search engines: Search engines may not be able to determine which page is more relevant for a given query, and may rank both pages lower than they deserve. Alternatively, they may choose one page over the other, but not the one that you prefer or that matches the user intent better.
  • - Reducing your click-through rate: When users see multiple pages from the same website in the search results, they may perceive them as duplicate or low-quality content, and be less likely to click on them. This can lower your click-through rate and your organic traffic.
  • - Wasting your crawl budget: Search engines have a limited amount of time and resources to crawl and index your website. If you have multiple pages targeting the same keyword, you are wasting your crawl budget on pages that do not add value or uniqueness to your website.

How to identify keyword cannibalization?

There are several ways to identify keyword cannibalization on your website, such as:

  • - Using a keyword research tool: You can use a tool like Bing Keyword Planner or Google Keyword Planner to find out which keywords you are ranking for, and how many pages are ranking for each keyword. If you see that you have more than one page ranking for the same keyword, you may have a keyword cannibalization issue.
  • - Using a site audit tool: You can use a tool like Bing Webmaster Tools or Google Search Console to find out which pages are indexed by search engines, and how they perform in terms of impressions, clicks, and rankings. You can also use a tool like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to crawl your website and find out which pages have similar titles, meta descriptions, headings, and content.
  • - Using a manual approach: You can also manually check your website for keyword cannibalization by searching for your target keywords on Bing or Google, and seeing which pages show up in the results. You can also look at your analytics data and see which pages are getting traffic from the same keywords.

How to eliminate keyword cannibalization?

Once you have identified the pages that are cannibalizing each other, you need to decide how to fix them. There are several strategies that you can use to eliminate keyword cannibalization, such as:

  • - Consolidating your pages: If you have two or more pages that target the same keyword or topic, and have similar or overlapping content, you can merge them into one comprehensive page that covers all aspects of the topic. This way, you can avoid duplication and create a single authoritative page that ranks better and provides more value to users. You can also redirect the old pages to the new page using 301 redirects to preserve their link juice and traffic.
  • - Differentiating your pages: If you have two or more pages that target the same keyword or topic, but have different or complementary content, you can differentiate them by using more specific keywords and modifiers that reflect their unique angle or purpose. For example, instead of having two pages titled "How to Grow Tomatoes", you can have one page titled "How to Grow Tomatoes in Pots" and another page titled "How to Grow Tomatoes from Seeds". This way, you can target different user intents and avoid competing with yourself.
  • - Deleting or no indexing your pages: If you have two or more pages that target the same keyword or topic, but have low-quality or outdated content that does not provide any value to users or search engines, you can delete them or prevent them from being indexed using the noindex meta tag. This way, you can avoid cluttering your website with irrelevant or redundant pages that hurt your SEO performance.

Conclusion

Keyword cannibalization is a common SEO problem that can lower your rankings, traffic, and conversions. By identifying and eliminating it from your website, you can boost your SEO performance and provide a better user experience. If you need help with keyword cannibalization or any other SEO issue, feel free to contact us today. We are a professional SEO agency that can help you optimize your website and achieve your online goals.

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