Subfolder cannibalization
-
Hello,
I looked through the forum but couldn't find an answer so here is my question:
A client have 2 subfolders that are selling the same things for example Furnitures, Office Furniture, Bedroom Furniture, etc.
The website looks like this :
But it's like 2 diferents brand, just that it sells the same kind of product.
The company wants to put evereything in subfolder1 and stop the subfolder2, which mean stop the second brand.
But the thing is that right now the subfolder2 have better positions in SEO than subfolder1 for most of the Keywords.
How could I make all the internet traffic goes from the subfolder2 to the subfolder1 ?
A 301 redirection could do the trick ? In addition of improving the SEO (Title, H1, Meta, etc) of the subfolder1 ?Thanks for your help.
-
Hello,
I'm getting back to you about a point in your answer :
"So you have to make clear that it is not 90% branded traffic , it should be more unbranded keywords. In this case - before I would do anything, I would try to figure out why subfolder 2 is ranking for these terms and why subfolder 1 is not."
I understood and one of the main Keywords is "muebles" (Furniture in english) but the pages are really similar.
Except for the basic "Title, Meta, H1, etc" are there others characteristics or feature I should look into ?Thank you
Maxime -
Hello Andreas,
Thank you for your answer.
Yes exactly, that's what I'm trying to do right now : Figure out why subfolder 2 is ranking better than subfolder 1.
Then I'll make the appropriate changes but because SEO can take a long time to update and if the company is in a hurry I wanted also like a backup plan to "accelerate" those changes if possible.So right now I'm analyzing the pages (Title, Meta, H1, H2, speed, etc) to look for keywords and see the differences.
If you have any more advice I'll be glad to read it.
Thank you.
-
Yep that would do it, but it is a little bit tricky with the brands. You know an "adidas predator" page will never rank for "nike air max" but both ar shoes.
So you have to make clear that it is not 90% branded traffic , it should be more unbranded keywords. In this case - before I would do anything, I would try to figure out why subfolder 2 is ranking for these terms and why subfolder 1 is not.
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 to create a smooth blog migration from subdomain to subfolder main?
Hi mozzers, We have decided to migrate the blog subdomain to the domain's subfolder (blog.example.com to example.com/blog). To do this the most effective way and avoid impact SEO negatively I believe I have to follow this checklist: Create a list of all 301 redirects from blog.example.com/post-1 to example.com/post-1 Make sure title tags remain the same on main domain Make sure internal links remain the same Is there something else I am missing? Any other best practices? I also would like to have all blog post as AMPs. Any recommendations if this something we should do since we are not a media site? Any other tips on successfully implementing those types of pages? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ty19861 -
Keyword Cannibalization
Good morning everybody! I have a page in my web site that it's optimized for two specific keywords. At the same time, in the same web site it exists an other page better optimized for one of this keyword, that it would obtain a better position in search engine. The problem is the famous "Keyword Cannibalization", Can you help me with any suggestion to address Google through this defined page when people searches this keyword. Thanks, Giulia
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DByers0 -
How keywords and subfolders connect
I'm working on restructuring my site. We have main topic areas, and any given visitor will ONLY be interested in 1 of those topics. So to consolidate the information into a simpler format, I want to take all the various pieces of content and wrap them under a given topic. [There is a question in here, I promise.] So I want to create www.domain.com/topic/subtopic-1, /topic/subtopic-2, etc. [Yes, I will apply all necessary redirects for any new URL restructuring.] Now here's the question: If I want to rank for "Peanut Butter Sandwiches with Jelly" and "Peanut Butter Sandwiches with Jam," will I be able to structure the URLs as /peanut-butter/sandwiches-with-jelly/, or should I go /peanut-butter/peanut-butter-sandwiches-with-jelly? And please note, /peanut-butter/ will likely redirect to /peanut-butter/subtopic-1/ since it won't make sense to have /peanut-butter/ on its own. [PB&J is just an example.] What's the best way to go about this? Any recommendations? I really appreciate your help.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jheath0 -
Microsite Subfolder URL vs Redirected TLD for best SEO
We have a healthcare microsite that is in a subfolder off a hospital site.They wanted to keep their TLD and redirect from the subfolder URL. Even with good on-page SEO, link building, etc., they're not organically ranking as well as we think they should be. ie. They have http://our-business-name.com vs. http://hospital.org/our-business-name/ For best SEO value, are they better off having only their homepage as TLD and not redirect any interior pages but display as subfolder URL? ie. Keep homepage as http://our-business-name.com but use hospital urls for interior pages http://hospital.org/our-business-name/about/ Or is there some better way to handle this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | IT-dmd0 -
Correct Internal Linking Flow / Keyword Cannibalization
Hi, Would like some advice re our internal linking structure and possible keyword self cannibalization on our ecommerce site.. Will try and give you an overview. Imagine this page structure: Site
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bjs2010
Brand 1
Brand 2
Brand 2 Shoes
Products
Brand 2 Sweaters Then say in Brand 2 Shoes page we have the shoes, e.g., the products labeled as Brand 2 Shoes "Name of Model"
Brand 2 Shoes "Name of Model" Now, what I'm worried about is that if I do a search for "Brand 2 Shoes" it should bring up my landing page right? But it doesn't, it brings up some of the products instead... I'm worried that we may be self cannibalizing some of the keywords - and thinking of changing the product page to be "Brand Name of Model Shoes" or "Name of Model Shoes by Brand" Any ideas or comments appreciated! Thanks all0 -
Complimentary sub-brand; subdomain, subfolder, something else?
Hello forum! I have a question about subdomains vs. subfolders for a new sub-brand for a company. The company is looking at creating a sub-brand delivering a different service to the parent company. It is complimentary in a sense, but it would need a very different marketing strategy. It is not trying to 'hide' its parent brand at all, but instead would leverage the parent brand as added social proof. I've read that creating a subdomain essentially means starting from scratch in terms of SEO, and that a subfolder would better leverage the domain authority the TLD has accrued. However, creating a subfolder does not really gel with me, as it would not in my opinion provide a good experience for visitors. I.e. it's like running a website that sells electronics and having a subfolder marketing IT support services. Yes, there is some synergy-- but it can also lead to visitor confusion. I'd love your opinions on this! Carlo
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | carlod0 -
Subdomain or Subfolder for Locations?
I have a client who is ranking #1 for every term related to "bathroom renovations (main city)". They have now started to take on dealers/franchisees in neighbouring cities, and each location would now like to be ranking for THEIR cities. Is it better to use bathcompany.com/location or location.bathcompany.com? Considerations: The site has the address and phone number of the main location listed in the header, so if we do /location you will still see the main NAP. Using /location, If someone browses beyond the location landing page, they will venture into pages that target the main city (ex. "Bath Remodelling (Main City)") Using a subdomain will mean that we will need to duplicate content such as their image gallery, and we will have to create new content for their service pages or risk duplicate content. (ex. "shower remodelling (city)") Questions By using /location they will benefit from the strength of the subdomain, while using a new location-based subdomain will this mean we will have to start from scratch in terms of domain authority / link-juice? Will the NAP in the header affect the ranking of these location pages?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ATMOSMarketing560 -
Should we stream videos from a subdomain or subfolder?
This is causing some hand-wrangling and I need some help. Let's say we were developing rich video content for our products and our agency is hosting the content on a new external server. There are already plans to link to these videos from product detail pages, category pages, and landing pages on our main website: www.example.com. Would it be better to create a new subdomain or to use a subfolder with a reverse proxy technique for this video content? It's not truly a microsite and will not have a gallery page to navigate the various videos. For example, would it be better to use this: video.example.com/ ...or this (executed with a reverse proxy😞 www.example.com/video/ Of course, regardless of whether this new content will live on a subdomain or within a subfolder, we plan on creating a video Sitemap using guidance from Justin Hammack in this terrific post.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ryan-Ricketts1