When Keyword Cannibalization Eating Away At Your SEO Performance

In the SEO world, cannibalization is the ultimate buzzkill. When it comes to your website’s ranking potential, cannibalization can mean the difference between a top spot and obscurity. So what is this dreaded beast, and how can you slay it before it destroys your rankings? In short, keyword cannibalization is when multiple pages on your site are targeting the same keywords or keyword phrases. 

Therefore, Best SEO Company in India believes that it can negatively impact your site’s search engine visibility because Google will struggle to determine which pages are most relevant to users conducting a given search. If you’ve been in the SEO game for any length of time, you’ve likely heard of the dreaded practice of keyword cannibalization. But what is it, exactly? And more importantly, how can you avoid it and protect your website’s SEO performance? In this blog post, we’ll answer all those questions and more. Stay tuned!

What Is Keyword Cannibalization?

Keywords are an important part of SEO. But what if you’re accidentally cannibalizing your own keyword rankings?

Keyword cannibalization occurs when two or more pages on your site have duplicate content. For example, if you have one page with an “anchor text” at the bottom for “keyword” and another page that has a similar anchor text saying “more keywords,” Google will count both as one instance of content and, therefore, only optimize one page for SEO purposes.

What causes keyword cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization is when multiple pages on a website compete for the same keyword ranking in search engines. This happens when multiple pages are targeting the same keyword, or when one page is targeting too many keywords. Three primary factors cause keyword cannibalization:

Multiple pages of your website have the same keywords. This is likely to happen when multiple versions of a page exist, such as an HTML version and an AMP version. It can also happen if you’re using canonical tags incorrectly or if you haven’t implemented structured data properly on your site.

URLs have the same keywords in them. This happens when you generate content dynamically and use it across multiple URLs instead of creating unique ones for each piece of content (most common with news sites).

Keywords are repeated within one page or section more than once (e.g., “how to make money online” x3).

The Effects of Keyword Cannibalization on Your Website

If you have keyword cannibalization on your site, you should be concerned. The following are some of the effects that this can have on your website:

Lower search rankings. If people are searching for one term but finding another result instead because of duplicate keywords and phrases, then it’s highly likely that they’ll go elsewhere. And if enough people decide to explore other options in favor of yours, it could mean a drop in organic traffic from Google’s search results pages (SERPs).

Lower conversions. When customers land on a site or make a purchase from a company that uses this tactic, they may feel tricked or deceived—which can lead them away from future purchases or cause them not to trust the brand as much anymore. It also means there was no reason for them to come back because nothing was done differently than what would’ve been expected had no duplicates existed at all!

How to Fix Keyword Cannibalization

There are several ways to fix keyword cannibalization. Some of these fixes are simple, while others are more advanced and will take some technical know-how to implement.

Use 301 redirects: Redirecting your old URLs with 301 redirects is the most effective way to resolve this problem. The 301 redirect tells search engines that an old URL has been permanently moved, so you’ll want to make sure all of your links point to the correct page before implementing this fix.

Use canonical URLs: Canonical tags tell search engines which page should appear in their search results for a given piece of content (such as a blog post). If you have multiple pages that share certain keywords but have slightly different descriptions or titles, then adding canonicals will help ensure that only one version of each piece of content appears in search engine results and not both versions at once!

Use a sitemap: A sitemap helps search engines crawl through all of your pages on your website quickly and efficiently by providing them with information about which pages exist on your site and how they’re connected together internally within the site architecture itself – meaning there won’t be any confusion amongst bots like Googlebot when it comes time for them do their job properly!

Creating Titles as a Solution to Keyword Cannibalization

You may have heard that titles are an important part of SEO. This is especially true for keyword cannibalization. Titles are the most powerful tool you have for grabbing a reader’s attention and making sure they click on your article. Also, engaging with Best SEO Company in India can also help avoid keyword cannibalization by using the same keywords in all titles, first sentences, paragraphs, etc. that you use throughout your content.

Conclusion

Keyword cannibalization is a common problem among small businesses, but it can be avoided if you know what to look for. When you’re creating content for your website and social media profiles, make sure that each piece of content addresses a single topic in detail rather than trying to cover everything at once.