Did you know that your rankings might get affected by Keyword Cannibalization if you write your articles with similar terms? Your chance to rank up in Google may suffer. It may mean that your content will start giving competition to itself. Here, we’ll know some important points about Keyword Cannibalization such as what Keyword Cannibalization means, how you can identify it, and what you can do about it.

What does Keyword Cannibalization refer to?

Keyword Cannibalization refers to various articles or pages of a site competing for the same query (keyword or phrase) in Google. It may happen because the idea they explain is very much similar. Another reason could be their optimization for similar phrases. If the optimization of articles is for the same search queries, it can affect each other’s chances to rank up.

Negative points of Keyword Cannibalization for SEO

Keyword Cannibalization can have negative effects on SEO. It can cause negative consequences such as fluctuation of SERP rankings and a decrease in the number of page viewers. Diversion of visitors to different pages can also be seen.

How to identify keyword cannibalizations?

Fortunately, once the problem is identified, the fixing of keyword cannibalization becomes easy. Recognizing keyword cannibalization is quite easy.

You just have to create a spreadsheet that has a list of all of your website’s important URLs and related keywords.

Once you have listed the URLs and keywords, scroll through the lists and try looking for duplicate entries. If you find it, especially on the main page, you may be suffering from keyword cannibalization.

Now it’s time that you fix those pages. It is to be noted that keyword cannibalization can occur even if the meta-information in the title tag appears to be targeting the same keywords, so double-check that too.

If you are using a ranking monitoring tool, you may also want to take the opportunity to look for fine content and incorrect keywords applied to the wrong pages. Now is you can give your site TLC.

Ways To Fix Keyword Cannibalization

How you fix keyword cannibalization depends on the root of the problem.

Most of the time, the problem is just one of organization, but particularly stubborn cases may require solving 301 redirects or a new landing page.

The simplest solution is often to take your most authoritative pages and turn them into landing pages that link to other unique variations that fall under the umbrella of your targeted keywords.

Or, you may not have a landing page that combines all of your product pages into one place. In this case, you will benefit from creating a unique landing page that serves as the authoritative source page and links from there to all of your variations.

If your pages are not unique enough to warrant multiple pages with the same keyword, consider combining them into one page.

This is an opportunity to take two underperforming pages and turn them into a more authoritative resource. It can also solve the problem of smooth content.

Lastly, if you are already blessed with incredibly diverse and content-rich pages and the only thing your website is experiencing is a poorly planned keyword strategy, maybe all you need to do is find new keywords.

Make sure your keywords accurately describe the content of your page.

While I usually advise against using too many 301s, they may be necessary if you already have multiple pages ranking for the same term.

Using 301 allows you to combine cannibalized content by linking all the less relevant pages to one more authoritative version.

However, keep in mind that this tactic is only suitable for pages with similar content and that match certain keyword queries.

These solutions will solve most cases of keyword cannibalization, but if you are running an e-commerce site, you should be very careful to pay attention to how your CMS separates products of different sizes and colors. Some CMS programs create separate pages for each product variation.

You can use the above-mentioned points to save your article from keyword cannibalization. These will help your article or blog to reach many audiences and it will help the article to achieve a good rank.

To Sum Up

Keyword cannibalization is more widespread today than ever.
Ironically, the victims are usually webmasters who realize the importance of SEO to their business, but while they intend to optimize their site, they don’t fully understand how to “speak” Google’s language. It is normal to make mistakes and end up writing the same article

Fortunately, if your website cannibalizes its target keywords, the solution is not hard to come by and the damage is not permanent

Make sure you keep a check on keywords cannibalization as it can affect your SEO. Try making some changes in your article or rewrite some articles. With the right tools and a positive attitude, you can improve your SEO well.