What is Keyword Cannibalism and How Do You Fix It?

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What is Keyword Cannibalism and How Do You Fix It?

Businesses often create multiple pages of content on the same topic. This can be done to comprehensively cover a topic, targeting different keywords, creating different formats of the content, or targeting different audiences. When you create multiple pages of content on the same topic, you are putting yourself at risk of keyword cannibalism. 

What is Keyword Cannibalism?

Keyword cannibalism is a SEO problem resulting from numerous pages or pieces of website content that compete against each other for the same keywords in search engine results pages (SERPs). Each page takes away the chances of other pages performing well in SERPs. 

What is Keyword Cannibalism and How Do You Fix It?
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Why Does Keyword Cannibalism Happen?

Keyword cannibalism can occur due to numerous reasons, including:

Is Keyword Cannibalism Bad for my Website?

When you cannibalise your keywords, you end up competing against your own website for rankings in SERPs, as the crawlers cannot identify which page should be ranked higher. This makes it difficult for one of your pages to rank higher than the others, reducing your overall rankings and lowering your brand visibility in SERPs.

When you have keyword cannibalism on your website, you will see a reduction in how your back links are impacted. It makes finding relevant information very challenging, reducing your user experience (UX), boosting bounce rates, and reducing visitor engagement with your website.

Optimising and maintaining fresh content becomes very challenging for your content creators who need to spread content across numerous pages, all using the same keyword.

How to Fix Keyword Cannibalism

Chances are you have already realised you have a keyword cannibalism problem and now you need to rectify the issue. It is advisable to use a professional digital marketing agency with experience in SEO to assist you, ensuring that your keyword cannibalism issues are dealt with effectively, fixing the issue, helping to boost brand visibility in SERPs, and drive quality traffic to your website.

Use Redirects

If you have a number of pages that target the same keyword with similar intent, the easiest way to fix this is to redirect all the pages to one single page, boosting traffic to the page with the strongest potential.

Canonical Tags

If you have a number of duplicates or similar pages, such as dedicated pay per click (PPC) advertising pages, redirects are not recommended. The best approach is canonical tags. These tags are used on the cannibal page HTTP header, pointing Google and other search engines to the main version of the duplicate page. It tells the search engine crawlers that the identified page is the preferred page for ranking. It helps to consolidate ranking power, rather than each page competing with each other.

Optimising Content and Links

If you have an authoritative web page that is overshadowing a page with very little authority, you may face keyword cannibalism. The easiest way to fix this is to direct search engine crawlers to your preferred page, integrating a link on the other pages. Your preferred page must be optimised with a keyword in the title tag.

Noindex Tags

Noindex tags can be used to fix keyword cannibalism problems on your website. Noindex tags tell crawlers not to index a page. The code can be applied to your keyword cannibalism pages, stopping them from competing with each other, allowing your preferred page to be displayed in SERPs.

Conclusion

As your website grows, you will notice that some keywords are similar or the same as other pages on your website. It is important to regularly monitor your website for keyword cannibalism, fixing the problems to reduce the risk of dropping in ranking and losing your brand visibility, making it harder for visitors to find and visit your website. 

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