Identifying and eliminating keyword cannibalization from your content is compulsory, as it may lead to severe issues in search engine optimization (SEO). The search engine may consider this activity spam and will not promote you in the rankings. Instead, you may suffer several penalties, affecting the site’s health and reducing organic growth. You must be very precise and calculative when adding potential keywords in your articles to deal with over-saturation and cannibalization. We have developed this comprehensive guide on the most effective ways to identify and eliminate keyword cannibalization from your site to boost its SEO.
What is Keyword Cannibalization?
Keyword cannibalization occurs when more than one page of your website points toward the same keyword and promotes it in the search results. Consequently, they compete against each other in the search engine result pages, causing the bots to identify the most relevant and authoritative pages to display. It will affect not only your site’s ranking but also your credibility and authenticity. Similarly, it may also result in ranking irrelevant pages for a specific query, spoiling the user’s experience and reducing your audience. You must create and follow a good content marketing strategy to prevent cannibalization. Otherwise, you may end up with your plans.
Identification of Keyword Cannibalization
Keyword cannibalization is the reason for so many problems in the digital landscape and may cause you to lose your SEO ranking, as described previously. Therefore, you must identify this problem in your content to follow the perfect methods to eliminate them. In the under-section, we have discussed its identification.
1 – Analyze the Website Content
Firstly, you need to analyze the website content through different ways to identify keyword cannibalization. Create a list of primary and secondary keywords you have integrated into your content. Then, you should manually search each of them in the search engine and analyze which is ranking in the SERP. As a result, you will easily evaluate the pages which are competing against each other.
2 – Compare Ranking URLs
Comparing ranking URLs can also lead you to identify cannibalization. You can utilize SEO tools, like Ahrefs, Moz, and SemRush, to determine which pages are ranking for a particular query. In keyword cannibalization, multiple URLs representing different content but focusing on the same keyword can appear in the results. Thus, the bots get confused to promote the vital page and take the wrong page up in the rankings.
3 – Evaluate Search Intent
After you find multiple URLs ranking for the same keyword, it’s crucial to see whether all posts have the same search intent. Some keywords are so versatile that they cover every aspect, including transactional, navigational, and informational queries. Hence, if numerous pages appear for the same queries in the results, keyword cannibalisation will not be considered. All the other topics beyond them may result in this critical error.
4 – Content Relevancy
Content relevancy is another effective method to identify keyword cannibalization. Generate a list of all the pages that reappear for the particular query in the search engine. Afterward, manually analyze the content relevancy by understanding the user’s search intent. Determine which page has the best information to boost visitors’ knowledge. Hence, you can easily check the cannibalization and take your SEO strategy to an advanced level.
5 – Monitor the Rankings
Monitoring the keywords’ ranking can also deliver insight into cannibalization. Keep an eye on the position of your posts in the search engine result pages to see which content is fluctuating continuously in the rankings. When different pages with the same integrated keyword compete for the same position, the article rankings may change continuously. In this way, you will get a solid indication of keyword cannibalization.
How to Eliminate Keyword Cannibalization?
Eliminating keyword cannibalization is a calculative procedure, and you must be very precise when following the steps to avoid negative consequences. We have devised a complete strategy in the following paragraphs.
1 – Choose the Primary Page
The foremost thing you have to do is to identify your primary page for a particular keyword. Analyze the user intent and determine which of your post relates more closely to it. Then, you can easily work on it and optimize it for the ranking. Similarly, you need to change the content of other pages to make them perfect for other related queries. In this way, you will broaden your range to cover a single keyword from different aspects.
2 – Update Internal Links
Updating the internal links can also be a good strategy to remove keyword cannibalization., After identifying the primary post, you should create relevant articles and link them directly to the one you want to promote in the result pages. Moreover, a proper internal linking strategy will highlight Google the authority of your page and help it understand the SEO hierarchy. As a result, you will eliminate the competition between your own site’s pages.
3 – Optimize Meta Information
Meta titles and descriptions primarily help bots analyze the most relevant content for a particular query. If multiple pages have the same keyword, you can optimize the meta details of the targeted post to indicate to search engines its authority. Include the primary keyword in the title and description alongside the first paragraph and headings. Hence, it helps you eliminate keyword cannibalization.
4 – Redirect the Pages
Redirecting the competitive pages to a single one is also a good option to eliminate cannibalization. Check which pages are ranking for a particular query. Then, use 301 redirects to direct traffic from the cannibalizing pages to the primary page.
Final Verdicts
These are the most effective methods to identify and eliminate keyword cannibalization from your content. To sum up, multiple pages competing to rank for the same keyword in the results pages can take a heavy toll on the SEO strategy of the site. Furthermore, it will cause irrelevant pages to appear in the SERP, reducing credibility and authority. Identifying the content relevancy and evaluating the search intent help you recognize the primary page. By optimizing the meta details and redirecting the competitive pages to the primary post enable you to eliminate cannibalization.
