Keyword canibalization
-
Hi,
I'm ranking for 'bodybuilding schema' with two separate pages (see attachment). Is this a problem? I heard that's it's better to only have one page ranking per keyword.
If so, how do I prevent this?
Thanks!
Jasper
-
If you have two pages on the same topic that are essentially duplicates I would 301 redirect the weaker one to the stronger.
If you have two short articles on the same topic that could be combined into one longer article with more complete coverage of the topic I would combine the content on the stronger URL and 301 redirect the weaker.
If these are two distinctly different articles in the same topic area that would not be logically combined then I would keep both of them "as is".
My goal in small niches is to SATURATE the keyword spaces with lots of unique, substantive articles so that I keyword cannibalize everywhere.
Being called a "cannibal" can be a compliment. Yoummmm!
-
Are the two pages ranking using the same title tag? or even targeting the same keyword but with different wording around it?
If not and one of those pages is actually a page you have been optimising so the title tag, url, content etc and the other page is just a random which has come out the wood work, then just focus on the page your have optimised for.
Get this through the rankings and once it's done if you want to go back and try and pull the other through then why not, just depends if the work to do so would be better spent on another keyword to pull through.
-
Hi Jasper,
This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It really depends on what your intent with the pages is and which page is ranking higher.
If the most relevant page and the page you want to rank higher is indeed ranking higher then you don't really have a problem. Look at it from this point of view, if you can dominate a whole page of google with your pages (very, very unlikely to happen) it increases the chances of users visiting your site.
It is only really an issue if you are deliberately targeting the same keyword for different pages and want to rank for the same keyword on separate pages. If you are targeting different keywords for each page and they are ranking well for the keywords you are targeting, then it isn't a huge problem that they happen to rank for the same keyword.
Of course, if this is the only keyword that the two pages rank for or the page that is ranking higher is not the page you want to rank higher, then you do have a problem concerning keyword cannibalisation. In this case you will need to analyse both pages to see what is causing the problem. For solutions to the problem you should read Rand's article.
Hope that helps,
Adam.
-
haha, nice answer. I guess when both are in top10 it's not a worry
But what if I'm ranking at nr 34 and 36 or something, is it better to use a rel canonical or something to combine forces and have one page rank higher?
-
haha, nice answer. I guess when both are in top10 it's not a worry
But what if I'm ranking at nr 34 and 36 or something, is it better to use a rel canonical or something to combine forces and have one page rank higher?
-
I'm ranking for 'bodybuilding schema' with two separate pages...
Nice work! This is giving you twice as much exposure in the SERPs and pushing your competitors down.
Is this a problem? I heard that's it's better to only have one page ranking per keyword.
I hope that my competitors believe this.
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
-
Should I utilize URL re-writes to include keywords and other optimised page elements on my website?
Hi there, I am working on a medical recruitment website: https://wave.com.au/ I have noticed that our Job Search and Job Listings section of the website is lacking a little bit in terms of SEO optimisation. For example, at the moment this is our search page (with locum work type selected): https://wave.com.au/search-locum/results If you add a location, for example, NSW and then click search again, it updates the URL to: https://wave.com.au/search-locum/results?LocumSearchForm_Location[]=NSW&action_doSearch=Search+jobs I did a check what some competitors and leaders in the recruitment industry were doing and I came across: https://www.ochrerecruitment.com.au/jobs/anaesthetics/new-south-wales/locum/ If you click the different filters/options, it updates the URL to include more clearly defined categories. Some websites would even have a H1 heading tag that would update based on the filters/options you selected. Should I set up a set of URL re-writes and re-structure my website a little bit so that dynamic URLs change to static etc.? Does anyone have any best practice knowledge in regards to this? I have been referencing the following article: https://moz.com/blog/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls-the-best-practice-for-seo-is-still-clear
On-Page Optimization | | Wavelength_International0 -
How can a page rank for keywords that it does not have on it?
I have a client that is ranking in the top 10 for several keywords on their homepage. Their site has no purposeful SEO in it, there is barely any text on the homepage at all and none of the text are the keywords it is ranking for.
On-Page Optimization | | woodchuckarts2 -
Moz Pro recommends not using a keyword more than 15 times. If there is a lot of content and the density is low, is it okay to go over that?
From MOZ on-page grader... "Recommendation: Edit your page to use your targeted keywords no more than 15 times." But if I use a keyword 50 times and the keyword density is only 2 percent, is that ok? What is more important, the raw number used or the density?
On-Page Optimization | | Jeremy-Marion1 -
Keyword usage in eCommerce Sites - Danger of keyword stuffing?
Hi all, I'm having a little difficulty deciding the best approach for selecting my product titles as I've encountered a few issues. I understand how important it is to try and use the keyword in your product titles, but about the category page that lists all of these products? One of category pages, for example, has 16 products on it. Each has the product title followed by the keyword. I have also used the keyword in the category title, URL, breadcrumbs and two or 3 times (because it was natural) in a paragraph that describes the category etc. Due to the little amount of text on the page, and the sheer amount of times that the keyword is being used, it looks like I am keyword stuffing (By Moz On Page Report Card). I think it came to 23 uses of the same keyword altogether. This is the pretty much teh same throughout every category page on my site, and think I was penalised by Google for this reason. I'm a relatively new site and have done everything by the book as far as I know, so everything is pointing at this to be the cause of the drop/disappearance in ranking. How do I rectify this problem? It's important for the products to have the keyword in, right? As this is one of the SEO practices that is given more weight when considering rankings. I have thought a potential way around this, which is to split the keyword between an exact match, and a variant of the keyword in the titles - only very slightly though. So my product titles would look like 'Product A Exact Match Keyword', 'Product B Variant on Keyword' etc. Could this work? Can anybody advise on the best thing I could try? I have attached an image to give you an idea of the layout of my category pages - Apologies in advance about my embarrassingly rubbish photoshop skills! I wasn't able to upload directly, so I have attached a link. Thanks for reading, John 4iIkmSx
On-Page Optimization | | John_Francis0 -
Hyphenated keyword rich domains - is a hyphenated .co.uk better than a non-hyphenatedlesser TLD such as .org?
Hey there, Would anyone be kind enough to share their experience of using keyword rich hyphenated domains. Are they as effective at tanking as non hyphenated domains? i.e would it be better to get a lesser non-hyphenated TLD such as .org for example rather than a hyphenated co.uk?
On-Page Optimization | | Wallander0 -
Optimization of keywords in singular and plural
By Google Traductor: Hi, two questions:
On-Page Optimization | | romaro
1. What about the optimization of keywords in singular and plural?Do you recommend use landing pages in the plural and singularwords? as different results on Google searches in the plural andsingular.
2. Do you think that is a good strategy to generate a sitemap tosearch results pages based on searches by users of our site? Weplan to start generating a sitemap with a top 500 of the most popular searches and then scroll through to 1000, 2000, and more0 -
Related keywords in title/H1 tag
Hi, I am trying to improve our rankings for pages with photos/images. For the title is it benificial to include keywords that are almost identical in nature? For example: "Brad Pitt Photos and Images" In Google trends photos and images are both commonly used words so including both seems like it would help. When I search for each one separately in Google (Brad Pitt Photos vs Brad Pitt Images) different sites are returned (except for the ones that include both image and photos keywords). I had read that Google knows that Images and Photos mean the same thing, but the search results do vary. I know stuffing all related combinations isn't good, but selective phrases seem to make a difference. Just want to verify if this makes sense. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | NicB10 -
Keyword issue
On this site filmeonlinenoi.com the keyphrase "filme online gratis" its auto-cannibalizating?
On-Page Optimization | | Alexsmenaru0