If you optimize your articles for similar terms, your ranking could suffer from keyword cannibalization: you will "eat up" your own chances of ranking in Google! As your website gets bigger and bigger, the chances of your content starting to compete with itself become also great.
Here, we'll explain why keyword cannibalism can be damaging to your SEO, how you can recognize it and what to do about it.
What is keyword cannibalization?
Keyword cannibalization means you have different blog posts or articles on your website that may rank for the same query research in Google. Either because the subject they cover is too similar or because you have optimized them for the same sentence.
If you optimize the posts or articles for similar search queries, they eat away at each other's chances of ranking. Usually, Google will only show 1 or 2 results from the same domain in the search results of a specific query. If you are a high authority domain you might get 3.
Why is keyword cannibalism bad for SEO?
If you cannibalize your own keywords, you are competing with yourself for Google rankings. Let's say you have two articles on the same topic. In this case, Google cannot distinguish which article should rank highest for a certain query. In addition, important factors such as backlinks and CTR dilute with each other.
As a result, they will all likely rank two lower. Therefore, our SEO analysis will give a red ball every time you optimize a post for a focus keyword that you have used before.
But, keyword cannibalism can also occur if you optimize articles for focus keywords that are not exactly, but almost the same.
Also read our guide on How to create a WordPress blog with SEO in mind
For example, if we write two articles on whether or not readability is a ranking factor. Article 'Is the readability classified?'has been optimized for [readability classification], while the post 'Classification of readability'has been optimized for the focus keyword [readability ranking factor]. The two subjects have a slightly different angle, but are still very similar. For Google, it is difficult to determine which of the two articles is more important.
How do you recognize keyword cannibalization?
It's easy to check whether or not your website is suffering from keyword cannibalism. You simply search your website for any specific keyword that you suspect has multiple results. Just type a search in the following format:
site: domain.com keywords
The first results will be the items that you suspect are suffering from cannibalization.
This research will give you an easy answer to the question of whether you suffer from keyword cannibalism. Which of your pages do you see in the search engine results, and what position do they occupy? Of course, if two of your pages are ranking for the same keyword at # 1 and # 2, that's not a problem. But do you see your articles, for example on positions 7 and 8? So it's time to fix things!
Resolving keyword cannibalization
We have a full article that explains how to find and fix cannibalization issues on your site websites. It clearly describes the four steps you need to take to resolve such kind of issues:
- Audit your content
- Analyze content performance
- Decide which ones to keep
- Act: merge, delete, redirect
The first two steps will help you decide which articles to keep and which to merge or delete. In many cases, the interim part will be combining and removing articles, but also improving internal links on your website:
Merge or combine articles
If two articles both attract the same audience and essentially tell the same story, you should combine them. Rewrite both posts in one amazing article. This will help your rankings (Google likes long, well-written content) and solve your keyword cannibalization problem.
Read also : 3 SEO techniques to apply quickly
In the end, you will delete one of the two articles and adapt the other. Use the plugin Yoast Duplicate Post to clone one of the articles and work from it. And above all, don't forget: don't just hit the delete button; always make sure to redirect the post that you delete to the one that you keep! If that's what you want to do Yoast SEO Premium will help you: It makes creating redirects easier!
Improve internal links
You can help Google determine which post is the most important, by setting up a decent internal linking structure. You have to link it from the articles that are less important, to the articles that are most important to you. This way Google can figure out (by following the links) which ones you want to appear highest in the search engines.
Your internal link structure might solve some of your keyword cannibalism problems. You should think about which article is most important to you, and link the less important, long-tailed articles to your most important article.
Cannibalization of keywords and online stores
Now, if you have an online store, you might be worried about all those product pages targeting similar keywords. For online stores, it makes sense that there are multiple pages for products that look alike. It is very important to give the structure of the website some thought in this case.
Read also How to do SEO for a WooCommerce shop?
A good strategy is to link each product page to your category page - the page you need to optimize for rankings. And keep an eye out for older product pages that could potentially cannibalize the more important pages. Delete and redirect them. - Yoast SEO Premium could help make this easier with its redirect manager!
Keyword cannibalism will affect growing websites
If your website gets bigger, the chances of you encountering keyword cannibalism on your own website increase. You are going to write about your favorite topics and without even knowing it you are going to write articles that end up being quite similar.
See also: How to merge two WordPress blogs without losing SEO?
Every once in a while, you need to check the keywords you want to rank higher. Make sure to check if you suffer from keyword cannibalism. You will also probably need to make some changes in the structure of your website or rewrite some articles from time to time.
Recommended Resources
And for those who want to go further, especially in optimizing their WordPress website, here are some resources that we invite you to consult.
- Keyword Research For SEO: The Ultimate Guide
- Some SEO Mistakes on Your Images You Should Avoid
- 9 WordPress plugins to send emails via SMTP
- How to Write Math Equations in WordPress
Conclusion
Here is ! That's it for this article which explains what keyword cannibalization is. Do not hesitate to send us your appreciations and suggestions. in the comments section.
However, you can also consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation or the one on Divi: the best WordPress theme of all time.
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