We’ve heard it all before – “content is king,” which is true. These days, we can say that creating compelling, engaging, and optimized contents are what makes the SEO world go round. However, some are overdoing it when it comes to keyword usage. Nope – we are not talking about keyword stuffing, but keyword cannibalization. Here’s how to manage it and why you need to hire an outsourcing services company to sort things out.
- But first, when does keyword optimization become too much?
- What is keyword cannibalization, and are you secretly guilty of such a rookie mistake?
- Would you hire an SEO content writing services to fix and manage your contents?
SEO Keywords are an essential part of your content marketing campaign. With keywords being the heart and soul of your content-writing efforts, it only fits that you optimize your keywords. With proper usage, you get to create a powerful online presence by achieving a high Google rank, increasing traffic, and raising brand awareness. However, many are guilty of SEO issue like keyword cannibalization, and most are not even aware of it.
Defining Keyword Cannibalization
Keyword Cannibalization occurs when you try and optimize your contents with similar keywords. When you have two or more articles targeting the same keywords, then chances are you’re intentionally or unintentionally rooting for a single topic. While this seems to be a good and harmless thing, it could be the very reason why your google rank is suffering.
Reasons Why Keyword Cannibalization Is Hurting Your SEO
Whenever someone uses your keyword in search engines, the results page will pull up the relevant posts/blogs that match the term of keyword inquiry. You may think that having two or more articles having the same topic will help you rank better.
The thing is, when you optimize a keyword or topic on two or more posts from a single website, you’re making your contents compete against each other. Doing so won’t help you get a better ranking. It will lower your chance of having your latest, more relevant, and better contents achieve a higher Google rank. The result is that the one you want to rank higher will have a lower ranking. The other effect is that it can drag down the ranking of all of your posts with similar topics or contents.
Since you have two (or more) contents fighting over each other in search engine results, you’re also putting your Domain Authority at risk. Why? Because contents in your page with the same keyword are fighting for page views and search engine results page ranks. Since your site visitors are being led to different pages instead of a single authoritative page, you’re also at risk of diluting your anchor texts and links.
Unknown to many is that keyword cannibalization can also make your loose potential leads. The reason is simple. With your less relevant contents ranking higher and being directed to your better contents, you can potentially make your conversion rates suffer.
How To Check If Your Page Is Guilty Of Keyword Cannibalization
It is crucial that you check whether or not your website is guilty of keyword cannibalization. Thankfully, it won’t take much of your time and effort to recognize if your site suffers from it. All you need to do is to search for your keyword along with your domain using the formula below.
site:(domain.com) (keyword)
For example, your website URL is www.seomagic.com, and you want to check if you have articles targeting the topic “keyword optimization.” You simply use the formula below to check if your site is suffering from keyword cannibalization.
site:seomagic.com keyword optimization
How To Manage Keyword Cannibalization
Just because your conscience is telling you to address the issue already means you need to fix your keywords. This goes to say that not all keyword cannibalization is bad. But when it becomes essential to fix the problem, then you have different options to choose from.
Solving keyword cannibalization is vital – especially after determining that it costs you your SEO. Luckily, there are many ways on how you can address this issue.
Hire An SEO Content Specialist
It may seem unnecessary to outsource the services of an SEO content writer to address your keyword cannibalization problem. However, let us shed some light on this issue. Hiring one from a reputable Staffing Outsourcing Services Company can help you in many ways. In this case, creating and optimizing your contents becomes a must-do if you wish to manage keyword cannibalization.
Perks Of Outsourcing Your SEO Contents
With professional services offered by skilled and creative writers, you can be sure that you’ll have a consistent supply of relevant, high-quality, and optimized contents for your websites. No need to worry about researching for high-ranking keywords and content-creation. You also get to enjoy delegating other tasks that are crucial for your success – be it for SEO or other areas of your business.
There are other ways on how you can address keywords cannibalization issues, such as the following.
Create New Contents And Optimizing Them Yourself
When you have time to spare, you can opt to create new articles yourself and making sure to optimize the keywords in the process. With the right content strategy, you can create good-quality contents to help achieve a better rank in Google search results.
Add More Keywords
Generating new keywords will make it easier for users to find pages on your website that are relevant to the keyword used. Instead of using the same keyword over and over again, use variations and create internal links leading to the main article. With the right tools and some practice, it will be easier for your site to rank up and have a better conversion rate. A recommended online tool to help you search for good quality keywords is KWFinder by Mangools.
Create A Unique Landing Page For your Keywords
After generating new keywords, make sure the links will lead to a single authoritative source page. This way, search engines will recognize this page on your website as an authoritative page with relevant contents and quality backlinks linking to it.
Consider Combining Multiple Pages With The Same Keyword
It is a common misconception that search engines can get confused when you have multiple pages in your site targeting the same keyword. What it does is it pulls up the most relevant contents higher in the search results. By combining articles with the same keyword, you’ll get a better chance to create more compelling content, give their ranking a boost and turn it into a more authoritative source.
Take Advantage Of A 301 Redirect
Such code implementation lets you redirect cannibalized contents into a single page. This is especially useful when you already have multiple pages ranking on search engines for the same keywords. Make sure to only use this strategy for pages with the same specific keywords and similar contents.
Consider Deleting Cannibalized Contents
When you find multiple pages on your website having the same keywords that are ranking up in Google, you have the option of deleting all offending pages and creating a new and better version. Take note that this is only for pages that have low-quality contents optimizing a single specific keyword. It makes sense when the said pages no longer offer much value.
Conduct A Local SEO Audit
A local search engine optimization audit allows you to check whether or not your website is search engine-friendly. You can do this manually or with the help of online tools. By taking advantage of a local SEO audit, you can check if you have duplicate title tags as well as similar meta descriptions. Track your progress to see if your efforts in addressing keyword cannibalization are working or not.
“Noindex” Blog Posts
When you wish to keep cannibalized blog posts but don’t want to use 301 redirecting or you don’t like merging or purging the pages, you can choose “noindex” as a last resort. “Noindex” is an excellent option as there is no need to delete, combine the contents, or edit them. Instead, you’re telling search engines such as Google that you wish for this pages not to appear on search engine results. Take note that this only works on blog posts.
Avoiding Keyword Cannibalization In The Future
Keyword cannibalization can cause a lower performing page to rank higher than your preferred post. It can also lead to diminished authority and loss of potential leads due to your site visitors being lead to pages that are less relevant than their search inquiry. The best way to manage cannibalization issues is by preventing it in the first place.
By checking if your website is already targeting a particular keyword, then make sure to create a variety before publishing the blog post. Rethink of your search terms and optimized the new keyword to make the most out of your contents. This way, you can avoid having duplicate keywords on title tags, meta description, and contents across your website.
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