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SEO Basics | Keyword Cannibalization

A group of friends on the couch, spilling their popcorn as they jump during a scary movie.

So you’re getting your feet wet with SEO and building out your content calendar with longtail keywords and feeling pretty good, but then the music shifts. The lighting becomes stark. Your beautiful calendar has become a horror movie. 


Have your keywords been… cannibalized? 


What does “keyword cannibalization” mean? 

Keyword cannibalization is an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) term for having multiple pages of your site attempting to rank for the same keyword. This is because in some cases, pages of lower importance can “cannibalize” views from higher value pages.


This can sometimes be a problem with SEO strategies that rely on keyword stuffing or computer-generated keyword lists. When you approach your SEO with honesty and a good understanding of your keyword landscape, I rarely find it to be an issue. 


What are the risks of keyword cannibalization?

The risks here are seen as twofold, 

  1. Keyword cannibalization could confuse Google as to which of your landing pages is the priority, and instead, it could decide to rank none of them. 

  2. Keyword cannibalization could also cause an unimportant page to rank for an important keyword. 


Google has been at the cutting edge of AI and algorithmic search engines for decades now, so to be frank, their search engine isn’t getting confused when sites target one keyword several times or many related keywords. It’s actually something they expect from high-quality sites. 


And if multiple pages of your site are ranking for the same keyword, that’s much more of an opportunity than it is a problem. If you’ve gotten a page to rank, and for some reason it’s not currently a part of your sales funnel or other valuable network of assets, it’s much better to improve the content of the page than remove or otherwise tank it.

 

Can keyword cannibalization be positive?

Absolutely! When I used to work at an SEO agency, one of my coworkers and I would jokingly talk about the mythical “Full House” that we were always chasing with our campaigns. If we could get our client to have 10 pages ranking for a keyword and completely cover the front page, then we would have a Full House and would have reached the highest rank possible in SEO. 


Completely owning your search results probably isn’t really possible, at least we never hit it, but there’s nothing wrong with having a larger chunk. Having multiple pages ranking for the same keyword, hopefully speaking to different aspects of that keyword, can help display your expertise in a topic to AI algorithms and human readers alike.  


How do you fix keyword cannibalization? 

If you’re not getting great traffic or conversions with your site currently and suspect keyword cannibalization is the culprit, I would advise you to examine the basic strategy for your keyword use. If you’re using 1-2 targeted keywords per page and making sure to fully answer the questions that those keywords imply in a human-centric way, you probably don’t have to worry about it. 


For example, if you run a business that offers swim lessons, Google’s AI is going to expect you to use the keyword “swim lessons” and different variations of it all over your site. However, if your metatitles read something like “swim lessons in Chicago best swim lessons swim lessons for kid and adults open swin” and you’re not ranking — it isn’t because of keyword cannibalization. 


It’s because of keyword stuffing and the fact that when humans see that title in a search list, they’re not going to click on it. A metatitle list that uses those keywords and will get you results would be: 

  • [Home Page] The Best Swim Lessons in Chicago | Little Nemo’s Pool

  • [Service Page] Swim Lessons for Kids of All Ages | Little Nemo’s Pool

  • [Service Page] Swim Lessons for Adults of All Experience Levels | Little Nemo’s Pool

  • [Service Page] Affordable Open Swim Schedule for All Ages | Little Nemo’s Pool


How to check for keyword cannibalization?

If you think you’ve found instances of keyword cannibalization on your site that need to be removed, there aren’t a lot of tools aimed directly at this task. However, if you do want to tackle it yourself, Ahrefs has a pretty thorough walkthrough on how to fix it. 


If you’d like a professional to check your site for instances of keyword cannibalization or other opportunities for SEO optimization, please reach out today! I work with clients from all kinds of niche industries and have yet to find one where SEO success wasn’t a possibility. Ask how you can get started on your six-month journey to the front page. 



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Disclaimer: The information in this blog and on www.rbwhitington.com is presented for educational purposes. No contract or promise of results is promised therein, and it does not legally represent a consultation or marketing advice. Any statistics or other information presented are researched in good faith, but no warranty is made to the completeness nor accuracy of the source. All written and multimedia content is copyrighted by Rayne Whitington and is not for reproduction or sale by third parties. By accessing this site and all its materials, you agree to and acknowledge these terms.  



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