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
-
Keyword Stuffing and Product Reviews
Hello Fellow Mozzers! I am pretty new the SEO world and have been tasked with improving our companies SEO with no prior knowledge of anything to do with SEO as of about 5 months ago. So far, I have been fairly successful (May be luck). There is a product page on our website that has moved from Rank 8-9 all the way up to Rank 3, on a high volume keyword, which increased our traffic to that URL by 500%! I was very proud of this accomplishment until tragedy struck... We suddenly dropped to Rank 6. It doesn't look like we've lost any Backlinks to this URL. My suspicion is that we got penalized for Keyword Stuffing since we recently changed from have multiple pages for a specific product's reviews to having them all on one page (To decrease the number of URLs our Site has). Many of these product reviews have the Keyword in them making us have over 30 of this specific keyword on our page. Could this be a valid suspicion? Should we go back to having different URLs for reviews and Disallow them for Robots?
On-Page Optimization | | LaceyVapeWild0 -
Keyword Appearing on Home Page - Moz Page Grader
Hi Today I entered www.partydomain.co.uk through the Moz Page Grader and found that the Home Page is Ranked B. I noticed that an Area we could improve on is the amount of times we are using our main keyword "Fancy Dress" on the home page. Please can you take a look at www.partydomain.co.uk and scroll to the bottom of the page were the tabs are containing losts of content. I am thinking about removing all of thoose Tabs. Our Competitors dont have any content as such on the home page and are ranking higher than Party Domain for "fancy dress" What do you think ? remove all the tabs to be like the others that rank better? Or cut the text right down ? Thanks Adam
On-Page Optimization | | AMG1000 -
Simple on-site SEO - bet practice for keywords in content
Hello, The Moz on-page grader will give a grade of A if the keyword appears exactly in the content at least one time. If there are 500 words and a lot of it is about the main keyword, what have you found to be important to look for beyond the on-page grader - beyond the one exact instance of the keyword? I'm specifically talking just about keywords in the content. My guess is that it needs to occur 3 or 4 times in different forms and at least once exactly, but the on-page grader doesn't require it. What have you found?
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Are Meta-keywords coming back?
I'm currently doing some benchmarking for a big realtor site here in México, while looking at the biggest players in the US I noticed most if not all are using the Keywords meta tag in their detail listings. I've been really open to my client about not using this tag at all given the current common knowledge but when sites like: Trulia.com, Realtor.com, appartments.com and the like, are using them I'm second guessing their utility. Does anyone have any insights on this? Should or should not we use meta-keywords? On a side note, there is some interesting microdata going on, in those sites.
On-Page Optimization | | makote1 -
Home page keyword effecting internal page ranking
Hello, My client has a second keyword for the home page that is competitive. The home page is not being ranked for this keyword. Instead, an internal category page is ranking. This internal category page is more relevant than the home page - it shows the categories for the actual products that this term refers to. But everyone around us in Google's page results has far more backlinks than the internal page, and we're all heavily optimized for this term. My question is, is it safe to pull the second term off of the home page or is this internal page strong because it is somehow being strengthened by the home page optimization?
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Trying to understand why i do not rank well for this keyword
Hi, i am working on a page at the moment and i am trying to work out why i do not rank well for the keyword gastric band hypnotherapy or gastric band hypnosis. The page is http://www.in2town.co.uk/Gastric-Band-Hypnotherapy any help on what i need to change to start ranking well would be of a great help
On-Page Optimization | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Should I bother with branded keywords in my onsite SEO improvements?
Someone recently told me that using branded keywords extensively in your copy and titles may be unnecessary so long as you have a substantial catalog of back links containing keyword rich anchor text. Can I take this to mean I can privilege non-branded terms over branded in my onsite SEO efforts?
On-Page Optimization | | bbelgard0 -
Keyword use in Title tag?
To improve SEO on a particular keyword, should you use that same keyword in the title tag of multiple pages within your site? Will that help or would it actually hurt by causing pages within your site to complete against each other for that keyword? Does it make a difference if that keyword is truly used on all those different pages?
On-Page Optimization | | KHCreative0