What is Keyword Cannibalization and How to Fix it?

Keyword cannibalization causes your content to compete with itself, affecting rankings and decreasing the effectiveness of your website.

The possibility of keyword cannibalization receives significantly less attention today due to the overwhelming emphasis on doing keyword research.

However, it can hurt your overall SEO strategy and lessen even the best website content’s organic performance. It reduces your chances of ranking higher because it requires that material to be at a disadvantage. But how can you tell if your website is a victim of keyword cannibalization?

You may determine which keywords, as well as any secondary keywords, are ruining your SEO results as a result of cannibalization with a rapid study of your placement, ranking, and organic performance. Then, you can start working to address each issue.

What is Keyword Cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization is when multiple pages on a website target the same keywords, thus making it difficult for search engines to rank them. This can cause problems for both search engines and users. Search engines do not know which page should rank in relation to other pages on the site, so users may not be able to find what they are looking for in a timely manner. Additionally, it can be confusing for users, who may wonder why certain pages are ranking higher than others.

Ranking URLs that constantly change is a common sign of keyword cannibalization and typically means Google cannot figure out which page should rank. There are several ways to avoid keyword cannibalization: use different keywords for each page, use different content types or categories (e.g., product pages), etc.

Why is Keyword Cannibalism Bad for SEO?

Today’s digital marketing techniques depend on choosing the optimal keywords to concentrate on when it comes to website content. However, focusing on such keywords raises the possibility that they will be overused in ways other than keyword stuffing. This error could cause keyword cannibalization and have a negative impact on your rankings.

When several pages on your website compete with one another for search engine rankings because they target the same or closely related keywords, this is known as keyword cannibalization. It implies that different material on your website may rank for the same query on Google. While using this approach could seem like a fantastic way to attract search engine attention,

Keyword cannibalization is the practice of using the same keywords on multiple pages on a website. Search engines don’t know which page to rank, so they don’t rank it as well as other pages. Keyword cannibalization is bad for SEO because it can be confusing for search engines and users. The search engine will have to make decisions about which page should rank better than others, and that can be difficult with so many pages targeting the same keyword. How to avoid keyword cannibalization: Use different keywords for each page, or use different keywords for each page’s content.

Keyword cannibalization can cause several issues and hinder your website’s performance in SERPs.

Diminishes Page Authority

You want your most authoritative pages to rank the highest because they are the ones most likely to result in higher click-through rates and conversions. Yet, instead of providing that one strong, authoritative page, with keyword cannibalism, you are splitting the results and ranking potential among two or more semi-relevant pages.

As a result, you have now turned your different pages into competitors, diminishing any one page’s authority over another.

Affects Your Link Structure

Your link structure may be impacted by keyword cannibalization on both an internal and external level. Internal links may be sending readers to a number of alternative pages rather than the most valuable, authoritative page. Externally, your backlinks will frequently be distributed among pages with the same or related terms, which will not benefit your website the most.

Interferes with Ranking of Relevant Pages

Google uses keywords to determine the subject matter of your website’s content.

If you use the same or related keywords on many pages, Google will choose the one that best matches a keyword-containing search. There is a good chance the search engine will be inaccurate. The page with the greater conversion rate may frequently find itself ranking lower on search engine results pages (SERPs), which means you lose out on high-quality leads and organic traffic that is more likely to convert.

How to Recognize Keyword Cannibalism?

Given your newfound knowledge of keyword cannibalization, how it impacts SEO, and how to spot it, you can now come up with a fix. As a starting point, consider conducting a content audit to determine what information you presently have and how it is presented. As well as determining current rankings, you may gain from examining the effectiveness of your content and its past performance. Redesign your internal linking structure, combine or consolidate information, and use redirects as your next course of action.

It’s simple to determine if your website exhibits keyword cannibalism. You merely do a search for your website using any exact keyword you believe may return more than one result. Regarding me

searching for “site:domain.com” You can quickly determine if you have keyword cannibalism by searching for “keyword.” By entering the same query into Google (using a private browser or a local search result checker like https://valentin.app/), you can confirm your findings. What pages from your website do you see in the search results, and where do they appear? Of course, if two of your pages are ranked #1 and #2 for the same keyword.

Given your newfound knowledge of keyword cannibalization, how it impacts SEO, and how to spot it, you can now come up with a fix. Consider conducting a content audit to determine what information you presently have and how it is presented as a starting point.

As well as determining current rankings, you may gain from examining the effectiveness of your content and its past performance. Redesign your internal linking structure, combine or consolidate information, and use redirects as your next course of action.

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