Is this keyword cannibalization?
-
I have a product page and our home page ranked for the same keyword.
On August 6th the product page was ranked #14 then plummeted to #60. On August 13th our home page was in the #2 spot (line just appears out of nowhere) and it is now in the #1 spot.
I also see the same pages appearing for some keywords ranked in multiple positions then plummeting and one coming back up. I'm having a hard time understanding how the Keyword tool in Moz is reporting exactly. Thanks!
To add to this: From Oct 8th to the 15th we jumped up from #60 to #16 for one keyword and then by Oct. 22nd are back down to #60. I have a huge spike on the 15th. Wondering if that had anything to do with any algorithm updates?
-
SearchMetrics would be a good place to start - you won't get individual keyword historic performance but it will show your website's overall SEO visibility over time. Particularly useful for tying in with Google algorithmic updates.
George
-
Thanks everyone. I have to report on keyword progress and just noticed those things and wanted to be sure it was ok. I'm having a hard time reporting on the progress of keywords as I can only go back to August in Moz. If anyone has any other suggestions for a way to see historical progress I'm all ears. Thanks!
-
Hi Sika,
What you're seeing isn't anything to be concerned about, and Moosa has already answered the cannibalisation part. I'd advise against tracking positions for individual keywords using a single tool from one week to the next. If you imagine there's a natural fluctuation of rankings and Moz is taking individual snapshots that might be up one day and down the next so they're only really meaningful when tracked over a longer period of time. You're also not taking into account the long tail - bunches of keywords that are similar which may not be fluctuating nearly as much as the one you're tracking.
The real indicator of where you rank should be the organic traffic to the page. I doubt that traffic will be fluctuating even nearly as much as the positions for the few keywords you are looking at.
As for algorithmic negative impact - you would probably see significant drops across multiple tracked keywords if this was the case - and those drops would be sustained until you diagnosed and fixed the problem.
Regards,
George
-
The situation you have mentioned didn’t really sound much terrifying and I think two pages if naturally targeting the same keyword should not be a problem. By definition this is exactly for Keyword Cannibalization is!
Keyword cannibalization (no matter how awfully terrifying it may sound) is a widely-spread website internal information structure problem that occurs when multiple subpages are (heavily) targeting one and the same key term.
Hope this helps!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Proper use of location in keywords
¿If I want to track keywords in a specific location, do I need to write the keyword with the location or only the keyword? For example: If I want to track the results of the keyword "hair salon" in a specific city, should I write "Hair salon in (city chosen) or only hair salon.
Keyword Research | | reginadelafuente0 -
Focus Keyword
Hi, I have 2 doubts regarding keywords SEO optimization. 1. I would like to optimize the keyword "liquidation channel". The thing is, in my copy/page title/URL/etc it doesn't make a lot of sense to use this exact keyword, but rather "liquidation channels", in plural. Will I rank higher for liquidation channel anyway? And if so, to which extent? (e.g. about 70%...?) 2. I would like to optimize the homepage for the word "liquidation", but found out that some combinations using this keyword (like "liquidation sales" or "liquidation auctions") would have higher traffic and might work better for some pages. I understand I would still be ranking higher for the keyword liquidation, but to which extent? If it's 100% because the keyword is always included, does it makes sense to use 1-word keywords or should we always focus on multiple word keywords? Would the same apply for 2-words keywords vs 3-words keywords, like "wholesale liquidation" SEO rankings being applied when optimizing "wholesale liquidation sales"? Thank you,
Keyword Research | | viatrading11 -
Keyword ranking by word order
If we have a keyword with 2 words like "SSL Audit". Will it rank in the same position the other way "Audit SSL" ?
Keyword Research | | Cistrust.com0 -
Include Location in Keywords?
I understand Google's local search automatically searches keywords with the location you are searching from. For example if I'm searching from Calgary and query "best shoe repair", Google knows I'm searching from Calgary and presents Calgary based results. I'm using Google's new Keyword Planner tool which allows for city based search results, meaning I don't have to include "Calgary" in the keywords I submit. The question I have is should I be attaching "Calgary" to my keywords for on-page optimization, and why or why not? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Keyword Research | | reidsteven750 -
How can i track keywords history
i need to keep a record for all keywords history , is there any way that we can track keywords history so we can compare each week with the previous weeks ?
Keyword Research | | omarfk0 -
Most Important Keyword Term
Question about a sites most important keyword term. So lets say you have a website and your most important keyword term is "Blue Widgets", you also have a page named "blue-widgets.htm". What do we do with our index page in this instance? Especially for the title tag? Should I put "Blue Widgets" in the title tags of both pages? I'm guessing this would be a duplicate meta tag error? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Keyword Research | | TRICORSystems
Thanks
-Brandon0 -
Effective keyword grouping - any suggestions?
I have a specific question regarding keyword grouping. Whenever I've have compiled a (long) list of keywords, I create smaller groups of keywords that can be targeted by a category or page. However, I find this to be quite labour-intensive as I'm doing this work manually through filtering in Excel. To illustrate what I mean, here's an example of a keyword list: baby shirt
Keyword Research | | DeptAgency
t-shirt for baby
pregnancy shirts
pregnancy gifts Normally I would create a list of root words, like this: baby
shirt
pregnancy
gift I would then manually filter the list on each root word and copy the filtered list to separate tabs, which would result in lists like this: baby
baby shirt
t-shirt for baby shirt
baby shirt
t-shirt for baby
pregnancy shirts etc. As you can imagine, this is a lot of work. So my hope is that you can help me out with a smart tool / Excel formula / ??? to automate this process. Thanks for any suggestions!0 -
How to get started with Keyword research
I am planning on a new self help site in German language. I almost died from a skin disease and had to learn how to heal myself. I now I teach that to anybody interested. I am tech savvy but internet marketing is new to me and I need some practical help in how to research my market niche and the best keywords. Thank you for your help, Guido
Keyword Research | | Guidowalter0