Keyword cannibalization is one of those terms that SEO consultants like to talk about, but if you don't work on search engine positioning on a daily basis, it may not sound familiar to you.
If you are one of those who don't know what it is about, we have prepared this complete guide for you, so that you can understand this concept and improve the ranking of your main keywords. After reading our article, you will know what SEO cannibalization is, how it can affect your website, why you should avoid it and how you can solve it. Does that sound good to you? Keep reading!
Here you can see all the keywords that are ranking for more than one URL. Be careful! It is important to keep in mind that this tool only serves as an aid and we must use our own criteria to decide whether we should correct cannibalization or not. Not all cannibalization is bad. We will see this later.
Here we get data about keywords that previously ranked with a URL, but for whatever reason Google decided to show a different URL . It is a method that gives us more useful information about where we could have negative cannibalization, although again, we must use our best judgment to decide if it is something we should correct, or on the contrary, if it is something that suits us. It could be the case that the URL change is due to a redirection, a product that no longer exists in the store, or a change of intentions, among others. To find out, we will use the third method of cannibalization analysis with Sistrix.
From any keyword list, we can see how the positions of a specific keyword have evolved . There we can find clues about possible cannibalization. If we see that the URL changes very often and neither of the two URLs has a good ranking, they are a possible candidate for a content analysis.
This way, we find all the pages on our site that speak about our keyword . All that remains is to review them and see if each of them has a different intention and its own objective, or on the contrary, if they are duplicate pages that are not needed.
To refine the search we can also search for keywords in the URL with the command site:yourdomain.es inulr:keyword or search for it in the title : site:yourdomain.es intitle:keyword
Beware! Keep in mind that not all of these pages are due to cannibalization. Some of them are there because of the rich elements that appear in the search engine. If you look at the screenshot, you can see URLs that correspond to the links that accompany the main URL:
However, we cannot guarantee that we will have an indented result or that it will always appear like this. A study has been carried out which shows that having only one URL per intention improves positioning . If we see that we are appearing with an indented result, we should carefully check that each of the URLs has its own objective so that it continues to appear and also so that it does not confuse users. In other words, we must ensure that each of the links provides value and is not there just to take up more space.
SEO Cannibalization: Definition and Examples
SEO cannibalization is a situation that occurs when URLs on the same website compete for the same keyword . What does that mean? Let's look at an example. Imagine that the post I am writing now is too long and I decide to split it into 2 separate posts: “What is cannibalization? - part 1” and “What is cannibalization? - part 2”. I would be creating two URLs that compete for the same search intent. This is where the cannibalization problem would arise. The blog is not the only example where we can find this phenomenon. In fact, online stores are where we run the greatest risk. I will mention some of the examples that I have come across on many occasions when reviewing a website:- Create categories in the blog based on product categories . For example, if we have a tennis store, it might seem like a good idea to create posts with product reviews and group them into categories such as “racquets,” “sneakers,” “clothing,” etc. But be careful, because they are probably the same categories that we already have on the website and it could end up being a problem.
- Creating more than one URL for the same product category . This is a practice that many websites use when they want to put the same category in different sections of the menu. As menu customization is often limited, they decide to create several categories to provide a quick solution without taking SEO into account.
- Products that are very similar to each other. Probably the most difficult to manage. These are two or more almost identical products in which only one characteristic changes, such as size or colour.
Keyword cannibalization analysis
Now that we finally have a clear definition of this concept, we need to know how to look for SEO cannibalization. To make this work easier, it is advisable to use advanced SEO tools. Although, if we do not have any, we can also do manual work to detect them. Below we show you some methods.Search for keyword cannibalization with Sistrix
Sistrix is, in my opinion, the best paid tool for finding content cannibalization easily. There are several methods we can work with, depending on whether we are looking for cannibalizations in a more general way or we are checking if we are ranking with more than one URL for a specific keyword .Keywords → show keyword cannibalization.
Here you can see all the keywords that are ranking for more than one URL. Be careful! It is important to keep in mind that this tool only serves as an aid and we must use our own criteria to decide whether we should correct cannibalization or not. Not all cannibalization is bad. We will see this later.
Changes in URLs
Here we get data about keywords that previously ranked with a URL, but for whatever reason Google decided to show a different URL . It is a method that gives us more useful information about where we could have negative cannibalization, although again, we must use our best judgment to decide if it is something we should correct, or on the contrary, if it is something that suits us. It could be the case that the URL change is due to a redirection, a product that no longer exists in the store, or a change of intentions, among others. To find out, we will use the third method of cannibalization analysis with Sistrix.
Show the evolution of the keyword
From any keyword list, we can see how the positions of a specific keyword have evolved . There we can find clues about possible cannibalization. If we see that the URL changes very often and neither of the two URLs has a good ranking, they are a possible candidate for a content analysis.
Search for SEO cannibalization without paid tools
Even without a tool like Sistrix, you can still do an analysis of cannibalized content. In this case, however, we cannot do a general review, but we must study the specific keywords . For example, those that are important for the core of our business, but that for whatever reason are costing us to position or that, from one day to the next, have dropped a lot in the ranking. We show you some methods of how you can analyze it:Commands in the Google search engine
It is as simple as putting this command: site:yourdomain.es + “keyword” For example:
This way, we find all the pages on our site that speak about our keyword . All that remains is to review them and see if each of them has a different intention and its own objective, or on the contrary, if they are duplicate pages that are not needed.
To refine the search we can also search for keywords in the URL with the command site:yourdomain.es inulr:keyword or search for it in the title : site:yourdomain.es intitle:keyword
Internal search engine
Another method you can use is your own internal search engine . Whether for an online store or a blog, if your website has a search engine, it will be as simple as entering the keyword and seeing if we have products or articles that appear for the same keyword and have the same intentions.Google Search Console
Finally, of course, there is the free tool that Google makes available to us: Search Console . To detect if we have more than one URL that ranks for a keyword, we go to Search Results and filter by the keyword we want to analyze. In the “Pages” tab we will see all the URLs that have appeared in the search results for this specific query .
Beware! Keep in mind that not all of these pages are due to cannibalization. Some of them are there because of the rich elements that appear in the search engine. If you look at the screenshot, you can see URLs that correspond to the links that accompany the main URL:
Why should we avoid content cannibalization?
It is common to mistakenly think that the more URLs there are on our website, the more visibility we will have. Of course, it seems logical that if I have many URLs, I will be able to occupy positions 1, 2, 3… in the search engine and so, no matter what, the user will click. Unfortunately, “expectation vs reality” brings us back down to earth. Most likely, instead of ranking with all these URLs in the first positions, we will not rank with any of them . This is because Google does not understand which of the URLs best responds to the search intent and ultimately decides not to improve the ranking of any of them . There are also other reasons why we should avoid content cannibalization. Also, not having pages with duplicate search intent means that we have fewer URLs on the web. This helps us to:- Improve the crawlability of the website , since Google will be able to spend more time on other URLs.
- Make interlinking and link building easier to give more authority to core URLs.
- Improve the User Experience on the web by not creating duplicate content and not confusing the user about which one they should consult
But is it always bad to appear with more than one URL for the same keyword?
As with everything in SEO, the answer is “it depends.” Since the end of 2021, we can find indented or indented results on Google. This is a phenomenon that occurs when Google’s algorithm decides that, for the same query, there could be another URL that enriches the result and that could also be interesting for the user.
However, we cannot guarantee that we will have an indented result or that it will always appear like this. A study has been carried out which shows that having only one URL per intention improves positioning . If we see that we are appearing with an indented result, we should carefully check that each of the URLs has its own objective so that it continues to appear and also so that it does not confuse users. In other words, we must ensure that each of the links provides value and is not there just to take up more space.
