Introduction to Keyword Cannibalization
The word cannibalization is not a new word. Keyword cannibalization occurs when numerous pages on a website compete for the same or related keywords, causing the site’s organic performance to suffer.
When our website’s content contains too many same or similar terms, this is known as keyword cannibalism. As a result, a search engine such as Google is unable to determine which information should be ranked higher. This implies that it will occasionally provide a better score to a web page that you do not want to be prioritized. It may also reduce the ranking of all pages that include these keywords.
For example if we have two pages about Driving License result, these two pages uses same keyword. So if we combine these two pages to one there is higher chance of increasing traffic. The existence of two pages with same content is taking up space of website’s organic performance. This is issue of Keyword Cannibalization.
Why is Keyword Cannibalization bad for SEO?
In case of SEO keyword cannibalization is bad. If keyword is cannibalize there is chance of self-competing of website for the rank in the Google.
Let’s assume users have two contents on the same subject. In that circumstance, Google is unable to determine which article should be ranked first for a given query. Furthermore, essential criteria like as backlinks and CTR are dispersed throughout several postings rather than a single one. As a result, they’ll almost certainly both fall in rank. As a result, if users optimize a post for a focus keyword they’ve used before, SEO analysis will show an error.
How to notice Keyword Cannibalization?
Looking for pages that target the same keywords and meet the same or very similar purpose is the key to detect keyword cannibalization.
One justification for this is that if each page’s intent is the same, it’s doubtful that it will rank for a variety of long-tail keyword variants. As a result, condensing the pages generally yields more benefits than drawbacks.
Checking whether or not your site suffers from keyword cannibalism is straightforward. You just do a search for your website for any specific term that you believe may provide many results.
Toc heck whether there is occurrence of keyword cannibalism in the website or not, we can Google the command “site: domainname.com+ keyword”. This will show the pages that are using same keyword and the rank of those pages. For example if two pages are shown in rank 1 and rank 2 then there will be issue in SEO and ranking of website.
How to solve Keyword Cannibalization?
In many circumstances, resolving keyword cannibalization will need the deletion and merger of contents. The few steps to solve Keyword Cannibalization are discussed below.
Step 1: Auditing Content
Step 2: Analyzing Content Performance
Step 3: Decide which article to keep and which one to remove
Step 4: Merge, Delete or Redirect the content
If two article have same target audience then it is better to merge the content into one. Rewriting the article with both of its content into one will not only solve keyword cannibalization but also improves ranking.
To grow website more it is essential to check the Keyword cannibalization issue. It is better to immediately solve the issue and control fluctuation in ranking.
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