How to fix keyword self-cannibalization?
-
page in question: www.bison-builders.com/lots-plans/bison-meadows-lots-1-6/
This page is the landing page for 6 custom home lots, available via Bison Builders.
I fixed the overstuffing of 'Bison Meadows', it was on all image title, alt, etc. Should be right around 15.
We are using 'Bison Meadows' as a keyword, because that's the name of the custom community. I don't want to change the names of the links, and I don't want to change the name of the keyword. How do I fix this self-cannibalization?
FYI, I was thinking of directing all canonical URLs for individual pages to this page, but will wait til I know how to fix this first...
Thank you!
-
Avoid Keyword Self-Cannibalization
Easy fix
<dl>
<dt>Cannibalizing link</dt>
<dd>"Bison Meadows Lot 1", "Bison Meadows Lot 2", "Bison Meadows Lot 3", "Bison Meadows Lot 4", "Bison Meadows Lot 5", and "Bison Meadows Lot 6"</dd>
<dt>Explanation</dt>
<dd>It's a best practice in SEO to target each keyword with a single page on your site (sometimes two if you've already achieved high rankings and are seeking a second, indented listing). To prevent engines from potentially seeing a signal that this page is not the intended ranking target and creating additional competition for your page, we suggest staying away from linking internally to another page with the target keyword(s) as the exact anchor text. Note that using modified versions is sometimes fine (for example, if this page targeted the word 'elephants', using 'baby elephants' in anchor text would be just fine).</dd>
<dt>Recommendation</dt>
<dd>Unless there is intent to rank multiple pages for the target keyword, it may be wise to modify the anchor text of this link so it is not an exact match.</dd>
</dl>
<a class="more expanded">Minimize</a>
-
-
In short - if you're unwilling to change the link text or the target keywords then you're not going to fix it.
You already have 'Bison Meadows' on the page you're targeting and it's in the URL. My advice is to have the next level of pages just Lot 1, Lot 2, Lot 3... etc as you really don't need to be linking down another level with that keyword if you're doing effective SEO of the URL above.
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
-
Do keywords within a dropdown menu add any SEO value?
I haven't seen this written about in some time. Has anyone had any experience dabbling in this?
On-Page Optimization | | gregvellante0 -
The need of two-keyword optimization in the same page
Hi there! Due to the business model of my company I have to optimize two keywords in one page. I just asked about this question before and someone told me thant as long as they refer to the same concept and have almost the same "meaning", it is possible. The problem is how to face it up. I mean, there's one H1 label, one title, etc....and what's the "policy" of key distribution in the content in order to priorice these keywords? What you guys recommend? many thanks
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr0 -
Keywords in Navigation
Hi, What is best practice for main navigation links with regards to use of keywords in them. For example is it best to using the phrase 'Pricing", "Website Pricing" or "Website Design Pricing" To me 'Pricing' is more appropriate because to the user they know they are on a website designer's site so what else would pricing be for right?! Furthermore you use less 'real estate' on the nav bar! There is on page text around the site which has links to "see our website design pricing" etc so I assume that is perhaps a more natural place to include that phrase? Look forward to your insights 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | NeilD0 -
Keyword in URL?
I have a website that has been live for about 8yrs. I do not have any significant rankings for my main keywords but am now starting SEO on my site. I am contemplating changing the url to contain the main keyword prefixed by my brand name. Any views on the ranking benefits and or CTR benefits.
On-Page Optimization | | Johnnyh
Example:
Main Volume keyword - 'car leasing'
current url - www.bobleasing.co.uk (made up name) thinking of changing to - www.bobcarleasing.co.uk (made up name) Any advice would be much appreciated. John0 -
Should I use bolded keywords for keywords in the content throughout the page?
If I'm trying to optimize for a specific keyword, should I bold all of the keywords that appear in the content of the page or just one or two? or none at all?
On-Page Optimization | | globalrose.com0 -
Branded keyword domain not appearing in Google
Hi, I have a site called www.emv-cards.com but the site has a very poor showing on Google for the search term 'emv cards' and this does not make sense to me. It has position #6 on Bing but is not in Google's top 50. Any assistance would be appreciated. regards, George.
On-Page Optimization | | sirgeorge0 -
Site Stucture Advice - Keyword Dillema
I am creating a new site and am looking for some advice on how to structure the site Using Google's keyword search tool it seems like I have a dilemma in that about 50% of the keyword pairs are contained in 10 keyword pairs that are similar The first two pairs have about 49% of the traffic and only differ between plural / singular, not quite sure how to handle that, or if google has a method to make these more or less synonomous The last 8 pairs are roughly similar in distribtuion As an example (not my case, just for visualization) Mountain Bike Classes Mountain Bike Instruction Mountain Bike Workshops Mountain Bike Training Etc ... which all more or less give the same results (yes some difference but they all deal with learning how to ride a mountain bike, again this is not my exact case, don't care a whit about mountain bikes 😉 I don't see giving each of those kinds of pairs their own page since the content would be pretty much the exact same, making it substantially different would also be problematic (if I am thinking about this correctly) I have a clean slate to work with from a site perspective so I am wondering how people here would, or better yet have handled similar situations
On-Page Optimization | | bThere0 -
How do I fix a 404 with a 301
I understand the need for fixing 404's but I have yet to have a serious walkthrough of how to set up a 301. From all the talk on the forums and such I'm pretty sure this is easy but I've just never done it before and I could really use a walk through. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | BenRWoodard1