Optimizing the canibalization
-
My client has a website that ranks 1st on ex: widget for website.com
The domain also has a section website.com/widgets that ranks lower in the SERP
The question is... are there any on-page elements or tactics to improve that specific page without affecting the overall home page performance?
-
That's a very serious consideration. I wouldn't wander too far from the primary phrase, and would even consider leaving the primary phrase on that inner page then having two others on that page that are tightly focused and related.
Add some internal links to those additional phrases, work on some inbound links with those. Just be sure you don't let that slip away and have the overall page's focus diluted away from the primary.
-
Great reply.
Would it be a better idea to leave home page as it's 1st place for the main keyword and target the sub-page longer keywords
ex: "keyword region" or some extensions worth targeting with a subpage.
-
It's a balancing act that requires as much art as science.
It essentially requires building simultaneous strength to both home page and internal page, and there's no quick fix way to do it.
I like to think of it as running right up against the edge of "too much" focus on that internal page, without falling into the "oops too much" hole.
And sometimes that does happen, so then you just focus a bit more on the home page for a while.
Then there's the long-term reality - competitors taking actions you can't anticipate, algorithm changes...
Given that long-term reality, I prefer not to get too stuck, on that one task or goal.
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
-
How do I best optimize my on-page SEO for a magazine-style wordpress theme?
My Wordpress website is set up with a magazine style theme (Newspaper). Maybe that's the issue overall here. Questions: 1) Pages vs Categories vs Posts I currently have a category with a few dozen posts under it. The category page itself has a ~1000 word article on it. It paginates every 10 posts or so at the bottom, but most of the page is duplicate because it's only swapping out a few links. Should I instead make the "category" a page with the posts childed under it? What's the best way to go about that? 2) Canonical and Pagination I get errors about a ton of duplicate content for paginated categories and my author page (all posts are under the admin account, which has ~40 pages or so. Every page is just a list of posts and it bitches about duplicate Titles and Descriptions on every one of the paginated posts). Should I canonical these back to the root author? Same question regarding pagination for categories, assuming I'm not going to be switching them to Pages. 3) Home Page Links Right now my home page just shows a few links to the top posts of all time. After that, it shows the 5 newest posts. On the sidebar it lists a few random pages/posts. There are also a few "category listings" which just shows random posts relevant to that category. Do I want something more static/structured? The navbar does list most main content pages under their appropriate category, but the home page itself is pretty much dynamic.
Technical SEO | | searchspot0 -
Optimizing a Forum (phpbb3)
Hi all, Over the last 6 months our small forum has be getting a tiny bit of traffic. We would like to make the forum a larger part of what we are offering (content wise). Regardless, I am wondering if anyone had any recommendations for optimizing a phpbb3 forum as Moz seems to keep telling me that I have 70,000 pieces of duplicate content, duplicate pages, etc. While the site crawl by moz outputs varying results week to week, it appears to be tagging posts and responses to posts as duplicate content. I am concerned that Google may be doing the same. Additionally, are there any recommendations for best practices related to forum meta descriptions and page titling as well? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Jared P.
Technical SEO | | wallacep0 -
How do I optimize a website for SEO for a client that is using a subdirectory as a seperate website?
We launched a subdirectory site about two months ago for our client. What's happening is searches for the topic covered by the subdirectory are yielding search results for the old site and not the new site. We'd like to change this. Are there best practices for the subdirectory site Specifically we're looking for things we can do using sitemapping and Webmaster tools. Are there other technical things we can do? Thanks you.
Technical SEO | | IVSeoTeam120 -
Mobile SERPS: how to optimize for call button
Hi, I have 2 questions about the "call" button on mobile google serps when doing a business name search: -since when is this button available in SERPS -is there anything specific you can do to actually have google display that call button (schema.org, ...) Kind regards Pieter
Technical SEO | | TruvoDirectories0 -
How should I structure a site with multiple addresses to optimize for local search??
Here's the setup: We have a website, www.laptopmd.com, and we're ranking quite well in our geographic target area. The site is chock-full of local keywords, has the address properly marked up, html5 and schema.org compliant, near the top of the page, etc. It's all working quite well, but we're looking to expand to two more locations, and we're terrified that adding more addresses and playing with our current set-up will wreak havoc with our local search results, which we quite frankly currently rock. My question is 1)when it comes time to doing sub-pages for the new locations, should we strip the location information from the main site and put up local pages for each location in subfolders? 1a) should we use subdomains instead of subfolders to keep Google from becoming confused? Should we consider simply starting identically branded pages for the individual locations and hope that exact-match location-based urls will make up for the hit for duplicate content and will overcome the difficulty of building a brand from multiple pages? I've tried to look for examples of businesses that have tried to do what we're doing, but all the advice has been about organic search, which i already have the answer to. I haven't been able to really find a good example of a small business with multiple locations AND good rankings for each location. Should this serve as a warning to me?
Technical SEO | | LMDNYC0 -
E-commerce Optimization
If you're optimizing an e-commerce site where you sell a certain brand of product, can you re-use the product descriptions from that brand's store? For example, if I'm selling Nike's, can I use the product descriptions and info from the Nike product pages? (This is not what I'm selling). Or should you write your own descriptions. I understand that original content is best, but in an online store situation, how do you write up a product description that's different from the original? It is what it is, right?
Technical SEO | | MichaelWeisbaum0 -
Optimize flash site
Hello, How can we optimize a site like this - http://www.ziba.com.au/ . The whole site is in flash. What are the alternatives ?
Technical SEO | | seoug_20050 -
Optimizing an Age Verification Alcohol Site
Is there SEO value from investing in keyword optimizing all pages of an alcohol product web site that requires age verification to enter? Would Google index and display the pages that live after the age verification page for targeted keyword searches? If if you go directly to an interior page URL, the site would still require age verification before showing you the page content. For example: <cite>www.jackdaniels.com/tennesseewhiskey/</cite> Any advice or insight based on experience with an alcohol site would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Room2140