Keyword Cannibalization: How to Detect and Fix It Properly

Because keyword cannibalism can have negative effects on the search engine optimization of a website, overlaps should be identified and resolved early on.

What Does Keyword Cannibalization Mean?

Now, if multiple subpages of a website are optimized for the same keyword, this is referred to as keyword cannibalization. For the search engine, it is then no longer clear which URL should rank for the search term. As a result, for example, severe fluctuations up to the loss of rankings can occur.

How Does Keyword Cannibalism Occur?

Keyword cannibalism usually arises unintentionally and therefore often only becomes apparent after some time. The most common reason is a lack of planning or oversight during relaunches or website migrations. A clean URL structure should therefore always be a focus in such projects.

Very extensive websites or blogs also often suffer from keyword cannibalism. They are gradually expanded with additional subpages. In doing so, it occasionally happens that very similar content already exists for a supposedly new topic. If the content of the two URLs overlaps too much, the subpages cannibalize each other.

Risks for SEO

When two or more subpages of a website compete with each other, this can have a negative impact on the search engine optimization of the site. Website operators then often notice drops in traffic or losses in rankings.

Keyword cannibalization can have the following effects:

Fluctuations or deterioration of rankings
Drops in visitor numbers
Dilution of the link structure
Lower conversion rate
Weakening of website authority

The Different Types

Keyword cannibalization always involves overlapping search terms on multiple subpages. Nevertheless, in search engine marketing a distinction is made between different forms of cannibalization.

Multiple URLs rank simultaneously for the same keyword: The content of the subpages is optimized for the same search term and pursues either the same or different goals. Multiple rankings do not necessarily have to be negative; instead, they result in several positions in the SERPs being occupied by the same website.
Multiple URLs alternate in the ranking for the same keyword: Strong fluctuations occur in the rankings for the affected subpages. Often, the ranking for one of the subpages drops out completely over time.
Multiple URLs have the same keyword in the title tag or in the meta description: The URLs compete with each other, which in turn can lower their rank in the SERPs.

Detecting Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword cannibalism should be detected in good time so that appropriate measures can be taken. There are various tools that website operators can make use of for this purpose.

Google Search Console

With the Google Search Console you can track which URLs rank for which search terms. Under “Performance” you can enter the search term as a query (“Query”). In the “Pages” tab, all URLs that are displayed on the search results pages for this keyword then appear.

Search Operators for the Site Query

In Google search, a site query can use so-called search operators to filter how many subpages of a domain appear for a keyword.

There are two useful search operators for this:

intitle: With this operator, all subpages whose title tag contains the keyword appear.
inurl: With this operator, all subpages whose URL contains the keyword appear.

A Website’s Internal Search Function

Larger websites or online shops usually have an internal search function. If you enter the keyword here, all product pages that are relevant to the search term appear. This makes it possible to find similar or duplicate content.

How to Fix Cannibalization

Anyone who regularly runs a site query and keeps a constant eye on the rankings of all subpages will usually detect keyword cannibalism quickly and can take appropriate measures. Which approach is best suited depends on how the cannibalization came about and which solution best fits the individual content strategy.

Merging Similar Content

If some content on a topic is scattered across multiple subpages, it can make sense to merge it. This creates an extensive and content-rich subpage on a topic.

Beforehand, you should analyze which subpage currently captures the best rankings and is better suited to the search intent. All relevant content should be merged onto this subpage. For the remaining pages, which are thereby eliminated, redirects to the expanded subpage must be set up.

Canonicals

If there are two subpages with very similar content, you can use a canonical tag to indicate to Google which subpage should be identified as the original source. However, Google does not have to follow this hint, which is why the canonical tag is not helpful if only one subpage is to be counted. A canonical is more suitable if the individual URLs should still remain accessible.

Internal Links with Suitable Anchor Text

If nothing about the website content should change, a sensible internal link structure can help show the search engine which URL should be ranked with priority for a keyword.

For the internal links to be relevant, suitable anchor texts must be used. Linking on the phrase “click here,” for example, is not very meaningful. It is better to also use the corresponding keyword for the anchor text.

Removing Subpages

Duplicated pages can be excluded from the index or deleted: via noindex (the page no longer appears in the SERPs but remains accessible) or by deleting it. If a subpage is no longer needed, it can be permanently deleted.

Conclusion

While keyword cannibalism can have positive SEO effects in individual cases, in most cases cannibalization sends negative signals to the search engine. As a result, strong ranking fluctuations and drops occur. Keyword cannibalization should therefore be detected in good time and resolved accordingly.

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