Keyword cannibalisation - Any way to find out who is eating who?
-
I have a question regarding some keywords in my site.
For some reason, I am ranking for the wrong keyword in some SERPs or my top page is ranking instead.
Example: graphic design is ranking for web design
Is there any tool or way to figure out how, why or who is eating each other up so to speak?
Would you have any advice or links to good sources on how to resolve this issue so that the correct page shows in search for it's particular keyword?
Thanks in advance!
-
Hi Megan,
Bit slow on responses sorry - thanks to the festive season haha.
The answers were exactly what I was looking for.
Marked as answered.
Cheers,
K -
Thanks! On-page grader is great!
-
Hi Andy,
Thanks! Was just the help I was chasing. Makes sense - thanks for the link too.
Cheers,
K -
Hi Kuruto! Do these responses help to answer your question or are you looking for more information? If you're good to go, please mark this as answered. Thanks!
-
Hi,
Andy is absolutely correct! It is likely that your pages are not different enough from each other to avoid ranking for the same keywords.
One tool that you can use is Moz's On-Page Grader. This tool will give you very specific feedback about how you can better optimize a page for the specific keyword you want it to rank for.
Hope this helps!
-
Hi,
Keyword cannibalisation is a problem that many sites face and it is normally down to pages not being targeted enough, or being too similar to one another.
The example that you used there, Graphic Design and Web Design, if either is talking about the other, makes too many references or doesn't include the words and phrases that Google would expect to see, then you are likely to face this problem.
Rand went over this a while ago and suggested that if the wrong pages are ranking for the wrong pages, then you need to devalue the wrong pages by removing those words and phrases that are causing you these issues.
I hope this helps.
-Andy
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
-
Inurl: search shows results without keyword in URL
Hi there, While doing some research on the indexation status of a client I ran into something unexpected. I have my hypothesis on what might be happing, but would like a second opinion on this. The query 'site:example.org inurl:index.php' returns about 18.000 results. However, when I hover my mouse of these results, no index.php shows up in the URL. So, Google seems to think these (then duplicate content) URLs still exist, but a 301 has changed the actual goal URL? A similar things happens for inurl:page. In fact, all the 'index.php' and 'page' parameters were removed over a year back, so there in fact shouldn't be any of those left in the index by now. The dates next to the search results are 2005, 2008, etc. (i.e. far before 2013). These dates accurately reflect the times these forums topic were created. Long story short: are these ~30.000 'phantom URLs' in the index out of total of ~100.000 indexed pages hurting the search rankings in some way? What do you suggest to get them out? Submitting a 100% coverage sitemap (just a few days back) doesn't seem to have any effect on these phantom results (yet).
Technical SEO | | Theo-NL0 -
How to rank for several keywords
Hi there Mozers, So far I have been building my webshop ouibonjour.com over the course of several weeks while studying the awesome educational content here on Moz and other SEO-related sites. I think I have done an OK job so far, and I have managed to rank #1 on several long tail keywords after a couple of weeks. Problem is - there are more long tail keywords I want to rank #1 for as well! **What I have done so far: ** I have taken the strongest keywords that can generate conversion and added them in page titles, title heads, main anvigation titles, in my alt text in images and so forth. The page is not screaming "SEO!" and I am happy with that. Nevertheless, I think the SEO measures here are done in an effective way. If you bothered to click on my page, you can see that the home page has only 5 posts (posts, not pages). They redirect visitors to other important parts of my site, and I change the image and/or the title once every 3 weeks to not keep the page too static. In a /magazine subfolder, I have a blog that ranks pretty good for several keywords, but the content here is not directly related to my products, but rather articles that fits the interests of my potential buyers (lifestyle, culture, etc). **What I need - but not sure how - to do: ** I basically want to rank for way more long tail keywords that relate to my products, but I don't want to continue setting up posts that have these keywords, because the content on the main page will be too heavy on the SEO, and therefore lose value for my visitors. How can I rank for more keywords without having to pepper my site with posts full of these keywords? I do not want to write articles on my blog that focuses on different combinations of long tail keywords neither, because it will get too spammy and make my visitors not return. I need help! I hope I have managed to explain my problem clearly. If there are any Whiteboard Fridays or posts on this subject that I have missed, please link me directly. If not, I would be tremendously happy and appreciative for any tips and tricks 🙂
Technical SEO | | Fernando_0 -
Meta keywords shown in Google SERPS as site description
I'm seeing Google display meta-keywords in the SERP description for some sites (at least a half dozen that I've checked). I BELIEVE IT IS AN AJAX ISSUE BECAUSE: The sites all use AJAX to display content. So the meta-keywords are in the header, and the javascript that displays the content. Non-AJAX parts of the site display properly in Google SERPS The meta-keywords don't visibly appear anywhere on the page. When I turn off images and Javascript in Chrome I don't see any hidden keyword text. I BELIEVE IT IS A GOOGLE-SPECIFIC ISSUE BECAUSE: Each site displays properly in Bing and Yahoo SERPS - the meta-description is the description. However, (as expected) I see the same strange meta-keyword activity in Aol search In Screaming Frog's SERP preview I see the meta-description as the description. Google has been ignoring met-keywords for years. Any idea why it's appearing in the SERPS for these AJAX powered sites? I found one other person who saw that Google may be reading and displaying their content in AJAX even though that content is meant to appear on a different "page". No one on that Google Forum seemed to understand the person's problem. The only reason I get it is because now I'm seeing it with my own eyes. I know the Moz community can do better, so i'm posting about it here.
Technical SEO | | AlexCobb0 -
Trouble making up a keyword map
I’m starting my first blog and I’m in the phase of making a keyword map. Now I’m not sure about how it done and if it is done right. I would be thankfull if you’d be so kind to check it out and tell me if it’s good or not and what should change. PM me if you wanna help me, I'll send out the excel file. P.S.S.: For those who help out, don’t mind the almost empty transactional column, ignore that, just advice on how it is ordered.
Technical SEO | | JeffBlanc0 -
Do keywords in url parameter count?
I have a client who is on an older ecommerce platform that does not allow url rewrites in anyway. It would cost a ton of money to custom dev a solution. Anyways right now they have set up a parameter on their product urls to at least get the keyword in there. My question is, will this keyword actually be counted since it is in a parameter? An example url is http://domain.com/Catalog.aspx?Level1=01&Level2=02&C=Product-name-here Does this 'product-name-here' count as having the keyword in the url according to google?
Technical SEO | | webfeatseo0 -
URL Structure: When to insert keywords?
I read the SEOmoz beginers guide and it said that it's beneficial to place keywords in the URL as long as you don't overdo it. However, this seems awkward for common pages, such as "Home", "About", "Contact" etc.... I've currently targeted a specific keyword for each page on my site, as follows: Home: "Green Screen" Work: "Greenscreen" About: "Event Photography" Pricing: "Green Screen Photography" Should I rename the URLs as: Home: ...com/green-screen-home.html Work: ...com/greenscreen-work.html About:...com/about-event-photography.html Pricing:...com/green-screen-photography-pricing.html
Technical SEO | | pharcydeabc0 -
Keyword in Domain or not?
My on page optimization grade is an "A" with the following factors; Factor Overview <dl class="scoreboard clearfix"> <dt>Critical Factors</dt> <dd>4 / 4</dd> <dt>High Importance Factors</dt> <dd>7 / 7</dd> <dt>Moderate Importance Factors</dt> <dd>8 / 9</dd> <dt>Low Importance Factors</dt> <dd>11 / 11</dd> <dt>Optional Factors</dt> <dd>5 / 5</dd> </dl> The main thing I appear to be missing is keywords in my URL. How truly important is that in today's SEO world and how much time or ranking would be lost if I do not have control to change the external links to my website if I decided to migrate to a keyword relevant url?
Technical SEO | | classa0 -
Local results without geotargeted keywords
i'm trying to rank the site appliance-repair-ny.com for the New York City area. I managed to have the site rank pretty good (the site is less than 6 months old) for keyphrases with NYC, New York and Manhattan but i don't understand how to get the site rank higher for the ones without those keywords. For example: Appliance repair NYC - rank 1 Appliance Repair New york - rank 4 Appliance repair (without location) not in results Anyone can help me please? 🙂 Thanks!
Technical SEO | | atohad0