What is Keyword Cannibalization? How to Fix it?

What is Keyword Cannibalization?

Similar content on web pages is pretty unavoidable, as the topics that we discuss are often intertwined with one another, leading to similar keywords and phrases being used across an entire website. So what is keyword cannibalization and how does it impact SEO? Keyword cannibalization refers to instances where the same keywords or phrases are used throughout an entire website, and this leads to pages competing against one another for rankings on Google. Though some may assume that this is beneficial to SEO, it actually disrupts optimisation and may interfere with pages ranking highly. If you have a specific article or page that is about a certain topic, you need to ensure that none of your own pages are competing against it on search engine results pages. This will give your content the best chance at ranking highly!  

What Causes Keyword Cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization is caused by the repeated use of keywords or phrases across various pages on a website. Using the same keywords causes unnecessary competition between your own web pages, meaning that search engines would rank them for the same query. You already have tons of competition between yourself and your competitors, so adding more of your own pages to the mix could be detrimental to your SEO and rankings. To avoid instances of keyword cannibalization, it is important that you monitor the keywords you are using on your web pages, ensuring that different words and phrases are used as keywords within your content.    

Is Keyword Cannibalization a Bad Thing for SEO?

Yes, it is bad for SEO and it may negatively impact your rankings on search engine results pages. Search engines like Google do not display the same domains more than twice for one search query, this is to ensure that users are given an assortment of different information from a variety of different websites. When cannibalising keywords, you are ultimately creating competition between yourself, and this may cause pages that should be ranked for a certain query to not appear on results pages. 

Where Does Keyword Cannibalization Happen?

In order to avoid keyword Cannibalization, it is important to note the places where instances of cannibalization occur most often. The following are the two most common places where instances of keyword cannibalization occur. 

In The Metadata

The metadata refers to the content that appears on search engine results pages, below the link to your webpage. These snippets of information provide a basic outline of the information that is related to the search query and users use it to determine whether or not the content on the webpage is going to help them. Keyword cannibalization occurs in the metadata that uses very similar keywords or phrases. The most common industry to make mistakes around keyword cannibalization is e-commerce, as many e-commerce websites would have the same product and category pages as one another. If you have a large e-commerce platform, it can often be difficult to keep track of and differentiate the different product pages as much of the information would be very similar. 

On-Page Content 

The other area where keyword cannibalization is very common is in the page content. If pages are each optimised to reflect the same keywords and similar content, they would unavoidably start ranking for the same search queries on search engines. If you have two product pages whereby the product is exactly the same, but perhaps in different colours or sizes, the content that is written would be incredibly similar with only a few differences in the content. In order to avoid keyword cannibalization on-page content, it is important that each page be unique and diverse, with different topics of discussion and keywords and phrases on each individual page, even if they have products that are nearly identical. 

What are The Effects of Keyword Cannibalization on SEO?

Keyword cannibalization is detrimental to SEO and can cause a negative impact on the amount of traffic that is directed to your website. Although keywords are a big part of SEO and it is incredibly important that your website is optimised according to keyword research, using the same keywords across an entire website often confuses search engines on what the best page would be to rank for certain search queries. Cannibalization in SEO can lead to the lowering of rankings when it comes to search queries that actually match your content, so it is imperative that these issues be resolved. 

How to Detect Keyword Cannibalization Issues?

When thinking about how to fix and how to avoid keyword cannibalization, it is important that you consider the issues and reasons why keyword cannibalization happens. The following are a few of the different ways that you can work to detect whether or not keyword cannibalization has occurred on your webpage.  

Use Google Search Console Data

One of the benefits of using Google Search Console is that you can consolidate your data and find any issues within your content using the platform. Keyword cannibalization can be determined by using Google search console by searching through your analytics. Through viewing your analytics you can search for which keywords your pages are ranking for and compare whether these keywords are being ranked on other pages. If they are being ranked and you have found that you are in fact cannibalising keywords, you would need to adjust the content on the page that you do not want to rank for that keyword. 

Search Through Your Website

A manual search can also help you to monitor and look at whether or not you have keyword cannibalization issues. There should be different keywords used across your entire website and different topics that you discuss to ensure that keyword cannibalization has not occurred. Using word tools or even just the search engine to find different words and the number of times that they are used on a webpage will help you scour through your content quickly and easily. 

Use External Tools

As stated above, using tools can be a great and easy way to monitor the number of times a word is repeated on a webpage. There are a number of different tools that can be used, both ones that can let you know the number of times certain keywords are used in content and others that are uniquely created just for keyword cannibalization. The one that you decide to use depends on how much you have to spend on the issue and the depth that you want to search for these kinds of issues. Resolving them using these tools often involves adapting your content and changing the number of times certain words and phrases appear on certain pages or through the consolidation of URLs and data. 

How to Fix Keyword Cannibalization?

So by now, you understand what keyword cannibalization is and the effects that this issue can have in your content, and so it is now time to look at how to fix keyword cannibalization. There are numerous things that can be done to monitor how keyword cannibalization is affecting your content and the best ways to fix this issue. The following are just a few of the best ways to fix keyword cannibalization issues on your website. 

Do a content audit

Content audits are extremely useful when looking to fix cannibalization issues, and they are also good for the health of your website overall. A content audit will look at all of the content on your webpage and determine the effectiveness of it and it will also inform you of the issues that it comes up with and whether you should update the content. 

Use Canonicals

Apart from optimising keywords, there is a way for website owners to directly communicate with search engines and let them know which page they consider to be the most relevant. Using the rel=”canonical” tag. This kind of tag helps prevent the duplication of content that leads to keyword cannibalization issues and it will help to consolidate links for pages that are similar into one URL. This will ensure that your own web pages are not competing against one another when it comes to keywords and ranking space on search engine results pages.

Restructure Your Website

Another useful thing to do when looking to avoid or fix keyword cannibalization issues is to restructure your website. The page that you want users to be directed to, the one that has the most important information, can become your landing pages, with the other pages on your websites leading off of the one with the important information. This tells search engines like Google that the most important information is on this page and that this is what should be offered to users on search engine results pages. 

Find New Keywords

New and different keywords for different things on your webpage will ensure that your keywords are not cannibalised. Finding new ways of writing content is all part of the SEO journey and ensuring that your data is appropriately optimised and structured for you to rank as highly as possible on search engine results pages is an important part of you reaching your goals. No matter what industry you are in or what you are hoping to achieve, the way that you write your content and the types of keywords and phrases that you use within your content is one of the best ways to ensure that you do not cannibalise keywords in your content. Whether you do this on your own or hire a professional team like Markethinkers to do it for you, it is important that your content be your number one priority when looking to improve your SEO and user experience. 

Use 301 Redirects

Though it is generally frowned upon to use 301 redirects, they may help you to solve keyword cannibalization issues. These kinds of redirects work by consolidating data through linking pages to a more authoritative version of a webpage. it is important that you ensure that you are consolidating the data that you do not want to show and the things that are less relevant to your webpage and the things that you want to rank for. Using 301 redirects in this way ensures that none of your keywords have been cannibalised. 

Optimise internal Links

Internal links are a large part of how search engines read data and having them structured well will mean that you are letting Google know which pages have the most important information. When it comes to SEO, internal linking is extremely important, and having information that maps out well will ensure that keywords are not being cannibalised within your content. Through optimising internal links, you can fix any keyword cannibalization issues and make your website easier for search engine crawlers to map and index! 

What are The Tips to Prevent Keyword Cannibalization?

Learning the best ways of how to identify keyword cannibalization and recognise when your content has been afflicted with this pesky concept is one of the best ways to avoid it affecting your SEO and search engine results page ranking. One of the best tips to note when it comes to keyword cannibalization is noting the keywords that you are using in certain content, making sure that different keywords and phrases are being used for each one. Though doing this manually might seem like a hassle, if you have properly thought out and designed the content on each page, you can avoid having to fix the issues later. 

Another tip to remember and consider when creating your content are landing pages. Using landing pages to let search engines like Google know exactly where you want certain content and what content matters the most will ensure that the most important pages are the ones that are ranked on search engine results pages. 

What are The Best Tools to Use to Fix Keyword Cannibalization Issues? 

When it comes to fixing cannibalization issues, there is no better way to determine and solve problems than by using various tools. These keyword cannibalization tools have been specifically created to monitor whether this issue has occurred on a website and they often provide solutions on how best to deal with the problem, though it does depend on the type of tool that you are using and the payment plan you are on. The following are just a few of the best keyword cannibalization tools on the market today. 

Keylogs Keyword Cannibalization Checker

A great tool to use when searching for cannibalization issues on your webpage is the Keylogs Keyword Cannibalization checker. It has been strategically designed to help website owners find any issues that relate to keyword cannibalization and come up with the most effective solutions to solving the issues that are found. The Keylogs Keyword Cannibalization checker works by letting you know what pages on your website are competing for certain keywords and offer the best solution to resolving the issues. This tool is extremely helpful as it can be connected to your website via your Google account, ensuring that the consolidation of your data is easy! 

SEMrush Position Tracking Tool

The SEMrush Position Tracking Tool is great for cannibalization issues, but only if you are on the paid plan. This tool will monitor and track cannibalization issues, reporting back a score that will determine whether keyword cannibalization issues have occurred and which keywords or phrases may need some attention. If you receive a score of 100% on the keyword cannibalization report, this means that you do not have any issues and that keyword cannibalization has not occurred on your website, but a score any lower than this means that issues have been found. The report will indicate which keywords have been cannibalised and the best course of action to take to ensure these issues are quickly resolved. 

Google Search Console

As mentioned previously, Google search console is a great tool to use when it comes to picking up on and solving keyword cannibalization issues. When it comes to reviewing reports and analytics with regards to your keywords, Google search console is one of the best tools out there and many brands and businesses use this data to monitor their webpages SEO.The keyword cannobilzer tool will determine whether or not you have certain keywords from different URLs on your website ranking for the same search queries. 

SEOScout Cannibalization Checker

SEOScout Cannibalization Checker is a fantastic tool that helps to present your data in a neat and easy to read spreadsheet, using the domain of your website to track and report if there have been any cannibalization issues. If you are not wanting to pay for the product and just need a once off check, though it is recommended that you check as your content is updated, you can use the 7-day free trial. This trial will provide you with information on your keywords and determine if any keywords have been duplicated across your content and are ranking for the same search query. 

What Are Examples of Keyword Cannibalization?

Let us say for instance, that we are fruit vendors selling through an online platform, with product offerings, blog pages and more information about the positive impact that fruit can have on our health and how the fruit that is sold is grown. If on a blog post about healthy fruit growing practises, a phrase or word about health has been used too many times and has become a keyword, you may be now ranking for health and fruit on your website. Now, you have just created another blog post about how health and fruit work together and how it is important for your health that you eat a certain amount of fruit every day. This would be a far better blog post for users to see when they are looking for information about health and fruit, but these two pages would be competing against one another for space on search engine results pages for these queries. It is important that the first blog post be adjusted so that it does not impact the chance of the next blog post to rank highly for queries that would be better suited to the information provided! 

What Are The Results of Keyword Cannibalization?

The potential results of not resolving keyword cannibalization issues can be detrimental to the visibility of your website, and it will negatively impact the amount of organic traffic that makes its way to your web pages. With various keywords and web pages competing against one another, the content that you want users to see has a lower chance of ranking highly, providing search engine users with information and pages that may not contain the best of your information on certain topics. To ensure that you rank as highly as possible for the most relevant search queries relating to your content and specific pages, it is imperative that you avoid issues surrounding keyword cannibalization. 

How Markethinkers Team Can Help You to Find and Solve Cannibalization Issues?

Markethinkers offers services that ensure every aspect of your SEO is in perfect working order, and this service includes the recognition of keyword cannibalization and tips on how to solve these issues. With our team of professional SEO consulting and SEO copywriting experts on hand, all issues around cannibalising keywords will be solved in no time. If you are looking for a way of understanding the issues and need help on how to solve them yourself, our team also provides expert advice and guidance when it comes to issues such as this. With the Markethinkers team on your side, you can be sure that all of your content will be optimised to ensure you are ranked highly on search engine results pages!