Part of making sure your pages rank well on search engine results pages (SERPs) is keeping a close eye on your metrics and looking for problems with how your keywords rank. One of the common yet often undetected issues is keyword cannibalization.
In keyword cannibalization, you have two or more pages ranking for the same keyword or key phrase. These duplicate pages compete with each other to get the top spot in SERPs, which hurts your site’s rankings in the long run.
You need to find out if your site has keyword cannibalization issues ASAP. This is what this guide is all about.
Ways to Detect Keyword Cannibalization
Digital Authority Partners said detecting keyword cannibalization early is crucial to ranking effectively. When overlooked, keyword cannibalization can reduce your SEO success and negatively impact your ROI. Poor rankings make it difficult for your audience to find your top content. Here are ways to locate keyword cannibalization issues.
Locate Duplicate Issues with Your Website Search Widget
Your website search widget is a valuable tool that can help you find issues with your content. It helps discover competing keywords that might be causing cannibalization issues. But before using the widget, list the keywords or key phrases you think are competing on your site.
Input your keywords in the search widget and click “Go.” You will get a SERP with your pages containing the exact keywords or key phrases. Check these pages to find similar content and decide which provides the best information for your audience.
Utilize the “SITE:” Command
Google is the world’s most widely used search engine, with 84% of the desktop market. Aside from looking up everyday information, use Google to check on your site stats to find duplicate content and possible keyword cannibalization issues.
To do this, use the “site:” command to analyze your website. For example, if you own the site “pictureperfect.com” and you suspect the keyword “professional photography services” has duplicate pages, type in site:pictureperfect.com + “professional photography services” in the Google search bar.
Google will give you a SERP with all the URLs indexed for the quoted keywords. Analyze these pages carefully and decide which ones to keep or delete.
Search Duplicate Content with Google Search Console
Google Search Console monitors and manages your site’s performance in Google Search. You can also use this tool to detect keyword cannibalization. Log in and proceed to “Search traffic” and “Search analytics.”
You will get a list of keywords your site is ranking for. Click on the keyword that you want to analyze. Click “Pages” to show the URLs for which the keyword is ranking. If it is trying to rank for two or more pages on your site, you may have keyword cannibalization issues.
Techniques to Prevent Keyword Cannibalization
You and your team can use a content creation calendar to plan and carry out your SEO strategies. With your calendar, you can avoid duplicate content to prevent keyword cannibalization. Here are some advanced SEO techniques that can help you avoid this issue.
Produce Individual Content for Every Keyword on Your Site
A good content creation strategy is the best way to avoid keyword cannibalization. To avoid duplicate content, make sure each keyword has its own unique, interesting content with a single URL.
With a dedicated keyword for every page, search engines will understand what your page is about, index it, and effectively rank it in the SERPs. Here are content creation tips to help you avoid duplicate content.
- Focus on your content structure. Carefully consider your content structure to ensure that you are creating unique content. Base your efforts on the buyer’s journey and use your content to lead your audience from the awareness stage to the decision-making stage.
- Review your content often. Take time to review your content to avoid duplicate pages. Consider changes in your audience’s preferences, issues, or pain points, run an audit, and check your content on all platforms (social media, blog posts, etc.).
- Meet with your team regularly. If you have a team that creates content for you, meet with them to work on various content strategies, such as optimizing for editorial backlinks. Refer to your content calendar to ensure tasks are organized and on track.
Prevent Pages from Ranking with 301 Redirects
301 redirect is a status code sent by a server to a browser to redirect a URL to another permanently. When you use a 301 redirect, your users who access your old page will be automatically redirected to the new page. A web developer can help you safely add 301 redirects to your pages.
Aside from this, a 301 redirect transfers all ranking power from the old page to the new one. A 301 redirect is helpful in the following situations:
- Directing users to a newly created page. After finding duplicate content, you made a new main page, consolidating all the information from the old pages.
- Taking users to a merged page. You merged information from two pages into one useful, valuable, and updated page.
- Avoiding a deleted page. You do not want your users to see the old pages anymore, so you use a 301 redirect to send your audience to a new and informative page.
Canonicalize Your Top Content
A canonical URL tells Google that although you have several pages with the same keyword, you only have one relevant page. Google will show the most relevant page to people searching for your keywords. Like 301 redirects, you may ask a web developer to canonicalize your pages.
When you canonicalize your pages, you need to send people to your most relevant or newest page, but the old pages remain accessible to your audience. Also, unlike 301 redirects, canonical URLs don’t give the new site any of the ranking power of the old site. Use canonical URLs in the following situations:
- Ranking your most important page. You have duplicate pages, but you have selected one with the most updated and complete information. For three pages about professional photography equipment, you decide to canonicalize one page with the most updated information. You still want to keep old pages as a reference to old equipment.
- Preventing issues in e-commerce sites. This is for an e-commerce site with many categories and a long product list for each. The canonical tag is inserted into the primary keyword/category page. A site for sneakers has individual pages for every color. Canonicalizing the category “men’s sneakers,” indicates this is the main page.
Summing Up
You must detect keyword cannibalization to help your site rank in the SERPs. Use Google search, your site’s search widget, and Google Search Console to detect duplicate content.
To prevent keyword cannibalization, create unique content for each keyword and use redirects. Follow these strategies, and you can avoid the same content and keyword cannibalization for good.
