A common misconception is that having several pages on the same topic confuses search engines and causes them to display the “wrong” page in their results.
Multiple pages discussing the same topic can result in rankings that are unexpected or undesired, but this does not always indicate that there is a problem that needs to be fixed. On occasion, though, it may indicate a chance to combine material to boost organic performance and ranks.
What is the cannibalization of keywords?
An SEO problem known as “keyword cannibalization” arises when several pages of a website use the exact or related keywords. As a result, the website’s pages start to compete with one another for search engine rankings. This may make it harder for the website to rank well for specific keywords.
For example, we have two pages dedicated to technical SEO. There is a cannibalization problem if merging the two pages into one will increase overall organic traffic. Those two pages existence is negatively impacting our performance.
What causes the cannibalization of keywords?
Issue of keyword cannibalization that may arise for a variety of reasons:
- Several pages on your target have comparable content and the exact or related keywords.
- There is unclear information architecture on your website.
- The pages have been overly optimized for the same keyword.
Why does keyword cannibalization happen?
When you compete with yourself for Google search results by cannibalizing your keywords, search engines cannot determine which page should rank higher for a given search query, making it impossible for any page to rank higher. It causes websites to appear lower in Google searches and to rank lower.
Your backlink profile may suffer from keyword cannibalization as well. The number of backlinks pointing to different pages targeting the same keyword will determine whether or not a page can establish strong authority.
Additionally, it may make it challenging to locate the most pertinent information, which could lead to a bad user experience, higher bounce rates, and lower website engagement. Optimizing and keeping fresh content becomes difficult when resources and efforts are distributed among several pages targeting the same keyword.
The Effects of Keyword Cannibalization on SEO
Let’s examine how keyword cannibalization affects the SEO of your website.
Poor Ranking
Poor Rankings and Traffic One of the most prevalent signs of keyword cannibalization is a decline in traffic. Why? Because your organic search ranks may suffer as a result of cannibalization. It becomes challenging for search engines to determine which page is most relevant to rank for a given keyword when several pages are vying for the same attention.
As a result, all affected pages may see a decrease in visibility and search engine rankings.
Diminished Page Authority
Search engines rank pages according to authority signals such as user experience, content quality, backlinks, etc.
When the term cannibalization is used, these indications of authority are spread across several pages. This indicates that you have multiple pages with low authority instead of a single page with high authority.
Because of this scattered authority, it is challenging for your pages to rank higher in the search results than other high-authority pages. This could occur due to the website having several pages optimized for the same search query and intent. Resulting in the distribution of authority among multiple pages that are aimed at the same keyword.
Dispersed Internal Links
Internal links help your website’s many pages share authority. Keyword cannibalization disperses internal links throughout several pages.
You must link to various pages in each location, rather than just one, for every relevant anchor text on your website. The authority and relevancy signals of each page may be lowered by this disjointed linking structure. When looking for pertinent content on a website, users also depend on internal links. Users may become confused or directed to pages unrelated to their search query when multiple pages are linked together using similar anchor language.
Low Conversion Rates
Keyword cannibalization degrades the user experience on your website. Users may become overwhelmed by numerous pages developed for the same or comparable topic. They won’t be able to determine which one has the most thorough or current information. Not all visitors will possess the time or patience to peruse every page to get the answers. This may also cause them to lose faith in the caliber of your material.
What was the outcome?
Low conversions and a high bounce rate.
For instance, several pages and articles about creating and developing SOPs have been produced via the Scribe documentation tool. These articles give readers a variety of templates and practical advice to help them get started right away.
However, because multiple pages discuss nearly identical subjects, visitors cannot know which one contains the most accurate information.
Spent Crawl Funds
A restricted budget is allotted by search engines to index your website. When you have multiple keyword cannibalization instances, you should concentrate on creating distinct content instead of wasting this crawl budget on comparable sites surrounding the same term.
Search engine rankings may suffer if you waste your crawl budget, as it may hinder search engines from indexing more significant content.
Where Can I Look for Cannibalized Keywords?
Don’t panic if you think there might be some keyword cannibalization on your website. A few easy actions will let you locate and fix them with ease.
You can use the following methods to find keyword cannibalization.
Look Around Your Website
A simple method for finding keyword cannibalization is to search for terms related to your business. Do a Google search using a few of the terms you usually employ, for instance, if your business provides digital marketing services and you regularly publish content on marketing and SEO themes.
These can appear as “beginner marketing tips” or “SEO strategies.”
All of the webpages rated for this query are displayed by such a search. Verify whether two or more of your postings are vying for the same space.
Site Search exclusive to Google
Before entering the search query, type the name of your website to facilitate the process of locating keyword cannibalization. This is how it appears in the Google search engine:
Employing Outside Instruments
Ubersuggest and other keyword research tools can help you streamline the process and obtain complete data for a more effective keyword strategy. This can shorten the time, cost, and effort needed to remove competitor pages from your website and help you identify keyword cannibalization more quickly.
Resolving the issue
You may be wondering, “How can I fix it now that we know what the problem is?” Below are a few actions you can take to address the issue.
Redirects to 301
Let’s say you have several pages that target the exact keywords and display results for the same purpose, like
- Several blog articles discussing the same subject,
- Previous iterations of a landing page,
- Almost similar FAQ pages.
This has been classified as keyword cannibalization. Redirecting every page to the one that receives the most traffic and has the most SEO potential is the simplest way to address the issue.
Remember that you will need to consider the number of backlinks leading to the page, whether it currently ranks highly for the cannibalized keywords and the total number of visitors over the previous thirty days when choosing the page to which you will send the redirect.
To reroute subpages to the homepage of choice:
- Create a revised draft of the chosen page, adding insightful information from other pages and enhancing the text for the intended keywords.
- Revise the selected page in its updated version.
- Put in place 301 redirects that point to the desired carrier instead of the cannibal pages.
- Locate and replace any internal links pointing to the redirected pages with the appropriate page link.
- Delete the sitemap’s redirected URL.
Your ranking power won’t be split up among several pages after applying these modifications. Instead, it would remain stationary. Google eliminated redirected URLs from its index within a few weeks. You should then notice an increase in your search engine ranks.
Normative Labels
Let’s say you have a few pages that are nearly copies or duplicates altogether, such as PPC landing pages or sites with intricate URL parameters that you still want customers to see even though they don’t improve your website’s SEO. In that scenario, it would be advisable to apply the canonicalization strategy rather than redirects.
Canonicalization is the process of directing Google to the primary version of a duplicate page by adding a canonical tag to the HTTP header of the cannibal page.
Make content and links more effective.
You may encounter keyword cannibalization once more when a more authoritative page outranks a less authoritative one.
Assume you run a book-selling e-commerce website. You only have one category page on your page, “Books,” with links and content about adventure and action novels. There is a second category page that you have called “Action-Adventure.” Still, it has no links and not much content in the category.
Because it finds the most relevant results, Google will rank the “Books” page higher for the keyword “action and adventure books.” Consequently, the intended keywords are cannibalized by the “Books” page.
How can this be fixed? By including a link on the “Books” page that points to the desired “Action-Adventure” page and utilizing the keyword “action & adventure books” as anchor text, you may tell Google to go to your preferred page.
Next, make the desired page as optimized as possible by adding the term to the product listing, title tag, URL, and H1 tag. Even better, you may use an on-page SEO analyzer to receive advice for on-page optimization. These programs often offer ideas for improvements based on the top 10 SERP results.
Noindex tags
Using the Noindex tag, which tells search engines not to index a page, is another way to deal with the cannibalization issue. The following code would need to be entered:
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”>
Cannibal pages can be prevented from competing with your preferred page for search results by putting a no-index tag. Use the index, however, only in extreme cases—for instance, if you have a blog post with little to no organic traffic, no backlinks, or thin content. If not, you risk losing the keywords now ranked highly on that page.
Solutions for keyword cannibalization that we almost ever (or never) recommend
It is common for people to attempt to address cannibalization at the keyword level using what appear to be reasonable methods but are seriously faulty. So that you are aware of what not to do, let’s examine these in more detail.
Take the page down.
Unless the page has little value for your business (as previously described) or ranks exclusively for the term “cannibalizing,” this is rarely an intelligent approach. This is an uncommon response to cannibalization because none of these circumstances seems feasible.
Remove the page’s index.
When a page is not indexed, search engines remove it from their index, which prevents it from ranking for anything. This is a horrible technique to address cannibalization and further demonstrates why it’s virtually never a good idea to address cannibalization at the keyword level.
Make the page canonical.
This works only for several pages that are close or exact duplicates (sometimes referred to as duplicate content). Keyword cannibalization cannot be resolved by canonicalization.
Optimize the page less.
This one is essentially incorrect because a page cannot be de-optimized for a single keyword, even though it makes some sense in theory. That is not how things operate. For instance, eliminating any internal links that include the anchor keyword that is being cannibalized is probably going to have an impact on the page’s ranks for other keywords as well. Removing the page’s references to the cannibalizing keyword works similarly.
How to Avoid Cannibalization of Keywords
Avert publishing pages that target the same keyword and fulfill the same search intent in order to prevent keyword cannibalization. Whenever you create or optimize content, make sure your website is up to date.
You can use your CMS to search. Alternatively, use Google’s “site:[domain] [keyword]” operator.
Instead of making a new page, optimize the one you find if it ranks for the same term and meets the same search intent. Alternatively, get all the redirects, canonicals, and noindex tags ready and start everything at once. In this manner, Google is kept from ever being perplexed.
Additionally, keep an eye on your ranks using Google Search Console or Semrush’s Position Tracking tool. The faster you identify and address keyword cannibalization problems, the more effective your website should be.
Concluding remarks
It’s not actually true that keywords can be used interchangeably, at least not in the sense that most people think. Multiple pages discussing related topics or pages aiming at the exact keywords do not cause Google to get “confused.” It rates those pages based on its knowledge of what’s on them.
Does that imply that you can always tell Google to rank the page you want it to? Naturally, no. That does not, however, mean that it is “ranking the wrong page” or that urgent action is needed to “fix” the issue. More harm than good results from a number of popular “solutions” to keyword cannibalization.
