What is keyword cannibalization? What Is It And How to Fix It to Improve Your Website’s SEO?

 Let’s understand what is keyword cannibalization. By the time you’ve finished reading this article, you’ll have the answer to “What is keyword cannibalization?” and you’ll know what you can do to find, fix, and avoid it.

Keyword cannibalization is the widely used term when two or more different pages, i.e. content on different URLs but same domain, are ranking for the same keyword. Keyword cannibalization occurs when you have similar keywords throughout the content on your website.

Google and other web crawlers, resulting in multiple pages of your site competing for the same terms.

“Two or more URLs ranking for the same keyword”

A most common form is when two URLs are ranking for the same keyword.

Keyword cannibalization has much impact on SEO.

Keywords Cannibalization

Þ  How to Fix Cannibalization Issues?

What should you do when you find out that SEO keyword cannibalization is an issue on your website? There are a few possible solutions:

·     Use Canonical Links

·     Use Redirects

·     Create New Intent-Focused Content

·     Optimize Your Content for Long Tail Keywords

·     Use the Noindex Tag

Þ  How to Avoid Cannibalization in the Future?

It’s always better to save the redirects or canonical links as the last resort.

It is much better to learn how to avoid cannibalization.

Create New Intent-Focused Content

There are four main search intents, including:

·     informational

·     navigational

·     transactional

·     commercial

 

Why Is Keyword Cannibalism Bad For SEO?

Keyword cannibalism is bad for SEO because when multiple pages are fighting for the same keyword, they split up the power you have earned, and every single page becomes less visible on Google.

 

Here is a quick list of things that you shouldn’t do:

Now that you know how you can find keyword cannibalization issues, to fix the issues that you may have found. 

 

 

1. Is cannibalization of keywords bad in terms of SEO?

In most cases yes. In simple terms, cannibalization happens when you have two or more pages ranking for the same keyword. While it’s certainly great to have two pages getting ranks for the same keyword.

2. What are 301 redirects and how does it help?

301 redirect is a status code that means that a page has permanently moved to a new location.

Here’s what a 301 redirect looks like;

301 redirects are especially useful if you’re merging two web pages and want to make sure that links to outdated URLs are redirected to the correct pages which helps you preserve the link juice.

3. Is there any best tool out there to find these issues?

 Ahrefs is one of the most effective tools available right now to find and fix all your content cannibalization issues.

4. Using a canonical tag to fix the issue

A canonical tag (which uses the tag “rel canonical”) is simply a way of telling search engine bots that a specific URL represents a page.

Ways to find Keyword Cannibalization:

1. Content audit

2. Keyword audit

3. Google search

 

If the results look like similar pages with similar content, that’s cannibalization. 

Conclusion:

 

Keyword cannibalization could be harming your efforts to rank specific keywords.

 

This will help you diagnose cannibalization issues so you can fix them and give your target page the best chance of ranking well.

 

Here are a few important things around the cannibalization of keywords that you need to know to improve your website.

Keep reading!