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
-
Keyword Research for Low Volume Keywords
Hey friends, I'm looking for a little keyword research direction here, specifically for keywords and phrases with low search volume. I'm just going to give a recent example: I just finished a piece of content on customer experience. I began the process with some keyword research. Based on Moz's keyword explorer, "customer experience" has a monthly volume of 2.9k-4.3k. Sweet. So I move onto related queries and longer tail phrases to narrow my content approach. But just about any relevant phrase shows either a volume of 0-10 or 11-50 and very similar difficulty metrics, making it tough to choose a direction. So "what is customer experience" shows a monthly volume of 0-10. SEM Rush reports ~350 searches a month. I understand SEM Rush uses broader match, but I guess what I'm asking is: how do I perform keyword research with such minuscule volumes and such little data to differentiate? I've looked at Russ Jones' answer to a similar question here on how Keyword Explorer works: https://moz.com/community/q/what-is-a-good-keyword-volume-score ... but I still don't have a ton of clarity. Any advice would be awesome!
Keyword Research | | brooksmanley0 -
Changing Targeted Keywords on Landing Page
So we have a landing page that is ranking for a few of our targeted keywords but we are thinking about splitting the page into two and moving some of the content onto its own page. Our page at the moment has allot of content for keyword A and a little bit for keyword B, we are ranking for quite a few search terms around keyword A and a couple (but allot less) around keyword B, so we want to create a new page with content for keyword B ...hopefully that makes sense... So my question is are there any best practices around this sort of thing? We obviously dont want to negatively affect the rankings we are already gaining for keyword A and I'm worried that moving content around will do that. Thanks!
Keyword Research | | O2C0 -
Google Keyword Planner - Just PPC?
Morning Mozzers, Please help a layman learn. This is probably a silly question but when I look at keyword search data in Google's Keyword Planner Tool and I see "COMPETITIVE" or "LOW" am I looking at all searches inclusive of organic and PPC? I have been a bit confused by logging in through an Adwords account? At the moment to get my keyword research I am using a combination of Moz, Webmaster Tools, Keyword Planner. I have had a look at the free version of SEMrush which looks really cool. Is my approach right using these tools? Am I covering all bases / missing key opportunities? Regards Ben
Keyword Research | | Bendall0 -
Which keyword for title
I'm trying to figure out what to use for my title text. It's for a structural steel fabrication company. Adwords has the average monthly searches for "structural steel" and "steel fabrication" identical at 5,400. It has "structural steel fabrication" at 390 which I get that since its longer and a little more specific will have less searches. My question is if I make the title "structural steel fabrication" does google just see it as 1 big keyword or will it rank for "structural steel" and/or "steel fabrication"? What would any of you go with here? All 3 keyword strings make sense for the person seeing the title. Thanks for any advice you can give, Clay
Keyword Research | | clayknight0 -
Keyword tracking- Local
Silly question about Local ranking monitors. If I have a local client in Pheonix, AZ and I want to track rankings for keywords. Is it best to monitor city+keyword or just keyword? I have ran tests with multiple clients and locations, and cannot ascertain the difference- as far as rankings go. I appreciate all input.
Keyword Research | | TammyWood1 -
Question about ranking for long tail keywords
So I am looking at some long tail keywords for my web design company, for example: "website development and design company" The top results are websites that are not optimized for that specific keyword but about "web design & development" in general. The top ranking sites also have quite high PA with lots of links. If I were to create a page specifically about that term would it be fairly easy to rank for since the top ranking pages are not optimized for that keyword?
Keyword Research | | WebAdvancedUK0 -
Keyword Research Local vs Organic
I am curious what tact people take when doing KWR for a local business where regional keywords are important, for example 'Dallas Family Dentist' vs just 'Family Dentist'? It can be challenging to consistently create content for these regional keywords without looking spammy or akward in the wording of titles and copy. Any advice on how you approach SEO research or content creation when these regional words are important?
Keyword Research | | AESEO0 -
How to find keywords getting significant traffic
How can we check with the Google Keyword Tool to figure out which keywords are getting significant traffic. Needs explanation for the bolded part. I am referring to the Q and A at - http://www.seomoz.org/q/is-there-a-report-in-seomoz-that-will-show-me-what-keywords-each-page-ranks-for-on-my-site The best way to see the information you're looking for is to take all keywords that sent you an organic search visit for a given time period in your analytics and run them through a rank checker. You can then cross-check this data with the Google Keyword Tool to figure out which keywords are getting significant traffic.
Keyword Research | | seoug_20050