Keyword cannibalization is so called because you’re “cannibalizing” your own results – you’re splitting CTR, links, content, and conversions between two pages that should be one. When you do this, you aren’t showing Google the breadth or depth of your knowledge, and you aren’t improving the authority of your site for that query. Instead, you’re asking Google to weigh your pages against each other and choose which ones it thinks suits the matching keywords best.
Why is Ranking Twice Worse Than Just Ranking Once?
If the pages that are cannibalizing each other can be targeted to two different keywords, the fact they both rank is great. But if you’re ranking twice for the same keyword with two different pages can:
– Damage the quality of your pages.
– Google Could Devalue The More Relevant Page
How to Fix Keyword Cannibalization
After you’ve been able to identify the pages suffering from keyword cannibalization,you should fix this. Essentially all your pages need to target distinctly different keywords in order to help Google differentiate and rank these page more effectively.
1. Look for duplicate title tags
First assess the content on your site to identify where keyword cannibalization might be happening, and then map out the preferred topical themes of the site, so that each page is targeting a unique topic.
2. Reorganize your site architecture
While it may be as simple as fixing duplicate title tags, you may need a more robust restructure of the content on the site if more than one page seems to be targeting the same topic in the body content.
3.Be watchfully on Internal links & anchor text
The clickable text of a link is known as “anchor text.” Anchor text can be a very important signal to search engines of what that linked page is about. One of the most crucial ways to use keywords across your website is in the anchor text of internal links from one page on your site to another.
Keyword cannibalization can be bad for your site especially when you consider all the traffic you’re missing out on from those less than stellar keyword rankings. Understanding keyword cannibalization and how to find and fix it can go a long way for any site wanting to button up its keyword rankings, but as long as you follow best SEO practices when making these changes, you will be able to find, address and resolve any keyword cannibalization that comes your way.
Source: www.effectiveseo.net