A Quick Breakdown of Keyword Cannibalization and Its Effect on Businesses Websites
One of SEO’s main challenges is keyword cannibalization, which occurs when multiple pages on the same website try to optimize for the same, exact keywords or phrases. When managed poorly, keyword cannibalization could split your traffic, scatter your clicks, and drop your page’s search engine rankings to the second and third pages instead of the first, leading to lost web traffic, lower click-through rates, orders, revenue, and more—any site, whether it’s a 7,000-page Shopify store or a 32-page law firm website, can be impacted.
This guide covers tips and strategies for identifying and monitoring keyword cannibalization, explaining why it matters, its impact on SEO traffic, and how to identify and fix keyword cannibalization issues with Trackright to work towards a more effective content strategy.
What is Keyword Cannibalization?
Keyword cannibalization is when multiple pages on the website share the same keyword or phrases, affecting Google’s ability to rank them properly. For example, your site may have seven web pages about affordable domain websites. Instead of one of the results ranking within Page 1 of Google, you now have five pages that could cannibalize each other in the search engines.
Some of the more popular types of keyword cannibalization include multiple blog posts on the same topic, overlapping product pages, nearly identical categories of landing pages, and location pages using the same or similar keyword or phrase, e.g., “Personal injury lawyers in Austin” vs. “Austin personal injury lawyers.” Any of these practices cause two or more side pages to compete in the search engines, splitting ranking signals and lowering your topical authority.
Solutions to Fix Keyword Cannibalization
Fortunately, it’s not that difficult to fix keyword cannibalization issues. From fixing canonical tags to differentiating content, here are three of our favorite solutions for fixing keyword cannibalization:
Consolidate Pages
One of the best ways to fix keyword cannibalization is by consolidating your content using 301 redirects. This allows you to merge two or more similar pages into one authoritative source. First, look at the authority of all your competing pages, comparing search traffic, number of backlinks, engagement, and other KPIs before gathering content from the lower-performing pages and incorporating them into the single authoritative page.
You can start incorporating 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new “master” page. This will allow all the SEO gains of your old expired pages to merge into the new ones so that you have the most up-to-date content in one spot.
For example, if you run a law firm website, some popular informational posts could be titled “How do I avoid car accidents in Hialeah?,” “How to avoid car accidents in Coral Gables,” and “How do I avoid car accidents in Florida?” By consolidating Broward County content into the overarching state page (Florida) and applying 301 redirects from city pages (Hialeah, Coral Gables) to the state page, you can create a more comprehensive guide, dominating the search engines instead of struggling to maintain a ranking on any of the given queries.
However, every situation is a bit different. Meaning that grouping of queries can differ even between different cities, depending on the amount of coverage from competing businesses from that respective region.
An easy way to get your specific answer as to what queries you should group up, is to simulate a search done by a user from the target city, and see what pages Google is serving to users. As time passes, the web is filled more and more with pages written by marketers trying to rank for specific variations of service queries. Meaning that; while you may not need that many pages to cover your given service today, you may find yourself writing separate pages to cover previously grouped queries a few years into the future from now.
Differentiate by Query
Another way to fix keyword cannibalization is to differentiate pages based on search intent.
For example, your law firm’s website may have a blog post ranking for “What to look for in a car accident attorney.” In contrast, the services page could easily focus on the same keyword, e.g., “Car accident attorney Fort Worth.”
To differentiate pages, you can optimize on-page SEO elements like title tags, meta descriptions, H1s, subheadings, and content format, comprising a mix of best practices, checklists, and FAQs (versus client testimonials for the service page). This allows you to eliminate keyword overlap and instructs Google on classifying your pages so they do not compete with one another.
Use Canonical Tags
For law firm websites known for localizing pages for different cities, using canonical tags informs search engines what the primary pages are, reorienting them higher in the search engines. For example, if your law firm website has separate URLs for “How to find the right car accident attorney” and “Car accident attorney Miami” with overlapping content, you can canonicalize the master page to rank higher in the search engines.
With effective use of page consolidation, differentiating by query, and canonical tags, you’ll be on your way to improving the ability of your preferred page to rank in the search engines.
Impact on SEO and Traffic
Keyword cannibalization has a detrimental impact on search engine ratings and site traffic.
For starters, it helps split your site’s relevance and confuses Google by not letting it know what to prioritize. When several pages are optimized for the same keywords or phrases, Google may rotate which one ranks, split link equity across two or more pages, or choose a poorly optimized page to rank higher. This equates to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue for a million-dollar e-commerce website.
Secondly, expect organic traffic to drop. Without a top position or featured snippet, organic visibility goes down. Splitting traffic across competing pages dilutes progress, affecting the ability to earn external links, go viral, or dilute click-through rates.
For example, if one of your law firm pages ranks in the fourth position for “Best auto accident attorneys in Tampa,” two related posts sharing similar keyword phrases could drop your No. 4 rank to No. 9 and competing pages to the second or third page in positions 20 to 25. Your keyword strategy for “Best auto accident attorneys in Tampa” could generate only 300 visits a month, instead of attracting 2,000+ visits in the same time frame.
In short, ranking dilution results in lower click-through rates across weaker pages, and you easily miss out on dominating search engines for high-traffic keywords, especially for localized pages.
How to Identify Cannibalization with Trackright
One of the leading SEO and performance analytics platforms, Trackright is a complete SEO optimization tool. It allows users to track their Google rankings with robust features, including detailed insights on online marketing campaigns, real-time updates on Google My Business/keyword rankings, and automated daily and weekly monthly reports on how you rank for all of the keywords and keyword phrases you care about.
One key Trackright feature is its organic keyword tracking graph, which lets you learn the search engine rank for all your keywords on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Its metrics include search engine results pages (SERP) position, daily keyword position tracking, historical keyword rankings, and other metrics that allow you to identify poor-performing keywords. It also lets you compare keyword performance across multiple domains with intuitive filtering, tagging, and favoriting tools.
One way Trackright helps is by allowing you to identify overlapping keyword rankings instantly. The page-level insight set lets you know what URLs to optimize for the same keyword or phrase. Plus, its smart filtering allows you to see cannibalization issues instantly.
All you have to do is log into your Trackright dashboard, navigate to the Keyword Performance section, and see a complete list of URLs that rank for the same keyword for the best insight into internal competition. For example, the keyword “Best cruise accident attorneys in Tampa” could reveal two website URLs that rank at position 9 and 14 for /blog/best-cruise-accident-attorneys-tampa and /services/best-cruise-accident-attorneys-tampa, so that you can instantly identify keywords with the worst overlap with progress monitoring over time.
Optimizing Content Strategy
Here are three of our favorite tips for optimizing content strategy to avoid keyword cannibalization:
Build a Centralized Keyword Map
One of the best ways to avoid keyword cannibalization is to keep a keyword map document that lists your primary/secondary/semantic keywords along with the target URL and intent. For example, intent could mean a blog post (informational) or a service page.
That way, you can prevent overlap by ensuring every keyword is targeted only once with its URL. For example, suppose you’re writing about auto accident attorneys in Fort Worth. In that case, your keyword map will reveal all associated titles, such as: “How to find auto accident attorneys in Fort Worth” and “Fort Worth auto accident attorneys,” which could compete in ranking for similar terms. It’s one of the best ways to prevent duplicate targeting across content!
Focus on Content Briefs
Another way to get ahead of the curve with keyword cannibalization is by creating content briefs that differentiate between pages. All briefs should specify your target keyword, intent, and page to avoid overlapping, making it easier for you to avoid writing about the same topic.
Don’t Forget Topic Clusters
A third way to optimize your content strategy to avoid keyword cannibalization is by using topic clusters. For example, you can have a single pillar page for “The Ultimate Guide on How to Find the Best Auto Accident Attorney,” with your supporting posts being “Top 10 Questions to Ask an Auto Accident Lawyer Before Hiring,” “Auto Accident Attorney vs. Personal Injury Lawyer: What’s the Difference?,” and “How to Read Online Reviews When Choosing an Auto Accident Lawyer.”
Fortunately, Trackright makes it easy to see if you have conflicts with content clusters through its helpful visualizations and page-level insights.
All in all, building a centralized keyword map, focusing on content briefs, and being mindful of topic clusters are three powerful content optimization strategies that will help you avoid keyword cannibalization.