In the world of SEO, you want your pages to compete with other websites, not with each other. Keyword cannibalization is when two or more of your website’s pages are all trying to rank for the same keyword. When this happens, a search engine gets confused about which page is the most relevant.
This can be a big problem. Instead of your two pages working together to get a higher ranking, they are fighting each other for the same spot. This can weaken both pages and prevent either one from ranking as high as it should.
Why Is Keyword Cannibalization a Problem?
Keyword cannibalization hurts your SEO in a few key ways.
It Confuses Search Engines
When two pages on your website are optimized for the same keyword, a search engine can’t decide which one is more relevant. This can lead to a lower ranking for both pages.
It Wastes Your Crawl Budget
A search engine’s bots have a limited amount of time to crawl your website. If they are spending their time crawling two pages that are trying to rank for the same keyword, they might not have enough time to crawl and index your other, more important pages.
It Can Lead to Lower Rankings
Instead of having a single, authoritative page that ranks high for a keyword, you have two pages that are fighting for a lower position. This can prevent either page from ranking as high as it should.
A professional platform like Clickrank can help you with this. The platform’s keyword insights tool can analyze your website and show you if any of your pages are cannibalizing each other.
How to Find Keyword Cannibalization on Your Site
You can find keyword cannibalization on your website by using a simple search. Just type site:yourwebsite.com “your keyword” into a search engine. This will show you all the pages on your website that are ranking for that keyword. If you see two or more pages that are ranking, you have a keyword cannibalization issue.
How to Fix
Once you have found a keyword cannibalization issue, you need to fix it. Here are a few simple ways to do that:
Method 1: Rework Your Content
The best way to fix a keyword cannibalization issue is to change your content. You can update your content to make one of the pages more specific and the other more general. This will give both pages a chance to rank for a different keyword.
Method 2: Use a 301 Redirect
If one of your pages is old or has low-quality content, you can use a 301 redirect to send all of its traffic to the new, more authoritative page. This is a permanent redirect that tells search engines that the page has moved for good, and it will ensure that you don’t lose any of the SEO value of the old page.
Method 3: Use a Canonical Tag
If both of your pages are valuable, you can use a canonical tag to tell search engines which page is the original. This is a piece of code that you place in the head section of your page. It tells search engines which page to index, even if both pages have similar content.
What is keyword cannibalization?
Keyword cannibalization is when two or more of your website's pages are all trying to rank for the same keyword.
Why is keyword cannibalization bad for SEO?
Keyword cannibalization is bad for SEO because it confuses search engines, wastes your crawl budget, and can lead to lower rankings for both pages.
How do I find keyword cannibalization on my site?
How do I fix a keyword cannibalization issue?
You can fix a keyword cannibalization issue by reworking your content, using a 301 redirect, or by using a canonical tag.
