What Adverse Effect Happens Due to Keyword Cannibalization?
What is keyword cannibalization?
Keyword cannibalization, according to Google, is the “problem of multiple pages from your site competing for the same keywords or keyword phrases.”
When you have more than one page targeting the same keywords, the pages end up competing against each other for the ranking. The end result is that none of the pages may rank high enough to get the desired visibility.
How does it happen?
Internal link structure is one of the major causes of keyword cannibalization. When you have more than one page targeting the same keywords, the pages are likely to be linked to each other. This will result in the pages competing against each other for the ranking.
Another common cause is duplicate content. When you have the same content on more than one page, the pages are likely to compete against each other for the ranking.
How to fix Keyword cannibalization?
The best way to fix the problem is to find and correct the internal links that are leading to cannibalization. You can use the search console to find the pages that are competing for the same keywords.
Another way to fix it is to identify and fix the duplicate content. You can use the Google search console to find the duplicate content and then fix it.
Keyword cannibalization and How does keyword cannibalization harm your site?
Cannibalization is the proverbial “eating your own young” when it comes to site optimization. It is the act of using the same keyword or keyword phrase too many times on a website, to the point where the keyword’s effectiveness is diluted.
In very general terms, cannibalization can happen when two or more versions of a page target the same keyword or keyword phrase. The pages may be competing against each other for the same ranking in search engine results pages, or for the same “clickthrough” from users.
Cannibalization can also occur when two or more pages target different but related keywords or keyword phrases. In this case, the pages may be competing against each other for the same “search engine mindshare”.
When cannibalization occurs, the effectiveness of the keywords on all of the pages is reduced. This can cause the pages to rank lower in search engine results pages, and to receive fewer “clickthroughs” from users.
Cannibalization can also harm a website’s search engine optimization efforts in other ways. For example, search engine algorithms may penalize a website for keyword stuffing, even if the website is not actually engaging in keyword stuffing.
If this happens, the website may rank lower in search engine results pages, even for unrelated keywords.
So how do you avoid cannibalization?
There are a few things you can do:
- Choose one primary keyword or keyword phrase for each page.
- Make sure all of the pages on your website are relevant to the keywords you target.
- Use keyword phrases, not just individual keywords.
- Make sure the keywords you target are included in the title, the header, and the body of the page.
- Do not use the same keyword or keyword phrase more than once on a page.
- Monitor your website’s search engine rankings and “clickthrough” data to make sure the pages are performing as expected.
Conclusion
One common adverse effect of keyword cannibalization is a decrease in site traffic. This can be caused by Google lowering the ranking of a page that is cannibalizing keywords, or by users not being able to find the page they are looking for because it is buried under too many similar results.
