Solving Keyword Cannibalisation WITHOUT exact match internal links

[jamesjackson]

Hi guys,

I have an ecommerce client I'm working with (they are a tour operator).

The client has multiple variations of very very similar tours which has created a keyword cannibalisation issue.

I've read this blog from Rand on the issue, and I understand that I need to use internal links to show the bots which page I want to rank for which term.

Problem is, I cant use exact match anchor text as it wouldn't adequately describe the tour from a user's perspective.

eg I want a single page to rank for 'Los Angeles Tour' however, because the tour also takes in san francisco, I cant use the exact match anchor text 'Los Angeles Tour' because it doesn't give users a realistic indication of the page that they are going to.

My solution...

Is to use the internal linking structure eg 'San Francisco & Los Angeles Tour', This has the keyword phrase I want to optimise for within the anchor text.

Does this have the same effect as using the exact match anchor text?

I cant really see any other solution, so I'm guessing that s the right course of action

Your thoughts would be much appreciated

[RyanKent]

Consistent anchor text can help you resolve the issue. If you have several pages which cover very similar topics, that's great! You can rank for multiple pages in SERPs. You can even land several of your links at the top of the first page.

"Los Angeles tour", "Los Angeles tours", "LA tour", "LA tours", etc. can all be used. If you have 4 strong pages that cover that topic, split up your keywords and if your pages are great quality you can dominate the SERPs.

Do you have more the 4 pages for that topic? "Two day LA tours", "2 day LA tours", "LA tours 2 days", etc. You can expand or contract to meet your needs. The key is generated GREAT content, and consistently using proper anchor text throughout your site.

[jamesjackson]

Hi Ryan,

That's very clear and you've stated exactly what i'm planning to do, which is always good to hear:)

I know that I need to map keywords intelligently and use on page content and meta data to reinforce those keyword choices, however the crux of my issue (keyword cannibalisation) is that I have tens or hundreds of pages with similar content and phraseology.

Normally, I would use internal linking to indicate to the bots what page I want to rank for what phrase.

But if (for whatever reason) I cant use exact match internal links, do non-exact match internal links have the same effect?

I suppose to attempt to answer my question, (and to avoid going round in circles!), because I cant fix the problem as usual through exact match internal linking, I need to look at the issue holistically and rather than say the internal linking structure will fix the problem for me, I also need to be very careful with every aspect of on page (meta tags, alt tags, image filenames, on page content).

It's not the silver bullet that I was hoping for, but do you think that is the best solution?

thanks for all your help

j

[RyanKent]

Cannibalization happens when your site has multiple pages competing for the same keyword or phrase.

Let's assume your site has a page offering a tour of Los Angeles, another page which offers tours of Bevery Hills (part of the LA area for those not familiar with California), and another page offering a combined tour of LA + San Francisco. It would be reasonable to refer to all three pages with the term "Los Angeles tour".

The problem is when someone types "Los Angeles tour" into a search engine, which page does Google return to represent your site? While all three pages can represent your site somewhere in SERP, it is more likely that you can miss the first few pages because you are cannibalizing your own traffic. Rather then having one strong "Los Angeles Tour" page, you have three pages dividing the juice.

The solution is, for any page on your site, determine which keyword phrases are the primary focus of that page. Going forward, always direct any appropriate phrases to the page using anchor text. What you would not want to ever do is use the same "Los Angeles tour" text as a link to different pages on your site.

Is that a bit clearer?

[jamesjackson]

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately it's not 100% clear to me still though.

I think the problem stems from the fact that I don't have a simple 'vanilla' product, I have a complex product that needs to be described properly in the internal linking to be clear to users

So in response to your response!

I do appreciate the good point you make in the second paragraph about relevance, however following my example:

My page is highly relevant for the query 'Los Angeles Tour' as the product spends 5 days in LA and one day in SF.

Therefore my page should quite rightly rank for 'los angeles tour'...however it is not just a 'Los Angeles tour' it also takes in SF, and I need to specify that in the internal link to be clear to users.

So, if  I cant use the exact match phrase "Los Angelese Tour" my intention is to use the phrase "San Francisco & Los Angeles Tour" in the internal linking and that by having the phrase "los angeles tour" within the internal link (as long as I dont use that phrase in internal links anywhere else on the site), I will indicate to Google that that is the page I want to rank for the phrase "los angeles tour", thus preventing keyword cannibalisation

Does that work as a way of preventing keyword cannibalisation, and if not, how do I avoid the keyword cannibalisation problem without exact match internal linking?

thanks v much for your help

j

[RyanKent]

Hi James.

You can certainly use "San Francisco & Los Angeles Tour" as your anchor text. Clearly, that will only offer an exact match if a user entered in that phrase as their search query. All things being equal, if someone entered "Los Angeles Tour" as their search query, your page would not appear until after all the "Los Angeles tour" exact match pages. Of course, all things are never equal, but I think this is the information you were seeking.

If your client offers tours of Los Angeles, tours of San Francisco, and a combined tour of both I would consider offering a page dedicated to each tour. If the only tour is a combined tour, then clearly your tour is less relevant to the "Los Angeles tour" term, and your rankings should reflect that relevancy.

Your question jumped around a bit so I am not sure if that is the answer you are seeking.