Keyword Cannibalization: Guide for Startups

Keyword cannibalization is by far the easiest mistake to make in SEO.

Yet, it feels almost impossible for a startup to experience it, right?

A large site, with thousands of pages... Sure. They're bound to publish similar pages targeting the same keywords.

But a small startup site, without that many pages in the index yet... nah, impossible.

And yet, startups regularly end up with having multiple pages targeting the same keyword.

It's just, with startups, the issue is related not to the volume of content they have but to the lack of well laid out SEO strategy.

For example:

• Being inexperienced in keyword research, founders often regard phrases with similar intent as different, and target them with separate content.
• Or create several pages for the same product features. These pages also end up cannibalizing their target keywords.
• Or add the brand to every meta tag, resulting in confusion on the search engine's part, and so on.

Unfortunately, the consequences of keyword cannibalization can be pretty steep:

• Wrong pages end up ranking for your target keywords. And because these aren't the correct pages you've optimized for those, they end up ranking poorly.
• You don't seem to be gaining any traction with your SEO.
• Your SEO data is all over the place, too. And sure, it doesn't seem like a big deal. Not until you try to take your strategy to the next level, that is...
• And you pretty much give away the best rankings to your competitors.

So, this guide will help you avoid all of those problems, and fix keyword cannibalization on your startup site.

What is Keyword Cannibalization

In simple terms, keyword cannibalization (sometimes also called content cannibalization) occurs when multiple pages end up targeting the same keyword or search phrase.

But these pages are not duplicates. They feature different and original content. But they are optimized for the same target keyword OR they target the same topic and the same intent.

As a result, they become relevant to the same search queries.

And this means that you're leaving it to search engines to decide which page to rank.

But unfortunately, it's not their job, and so, with keyword cannibalization your site begins to compete with itself.

This usually happens in one of two ways:

1/ Multiple pages compete for the same keyword

In this case, you have several pages that seem solid candidates to be included in the SERP for the same keyword.

But since they are relatively similar, Google is unable to decide which of your pages to rank for the main phrase.

So, it ranks all of them.

And I do admit that, in theory, it sounds like a great thing, right? You have more than one page ranking for a keyword, meaning, you pretty much own the SERP.

Unfortunately, no.

Those pages compete with each other for the best rankings possible, remember? So, the chances are that it won't be the most ideal landing page that will end up ranking better.

(And even here, by better I mean higher than others, not that it ranks on page one or something. Most likely, all of those pages will be buried somewhere deep in the SERP.)

Here’s an example to illustrate the issue. The domain I highlighted has two similar pages ranking for the primary keyword.

One of those pages is a blog post. The other is a commercial product page.

The keyword has a commercial intent, meaning that it’s the other asset that should rank for it.

But in reality, it's the other way around. In spite of the commercial page having more authority and links, it ranks worse than the other one.

Luckily, both pages rank together, closely. The company doesn’t lose out much in this situation. Well, perhaps apart from not being able to rank higher for their high-value keyword, even though it should.

Most of the time, the situation is more dire - low relevance pages appearing higher and the correct ones further down the SERPs, often on page two or lower.

#2. Multiple pages show up in the SERP for the same keyword

In this scenario, only one of your pages end up appearing in SERPs for the target keyword.

However, unable to decide which page that should be, Google might flip the result between all pages targeting that phrase.

One page might appear in SERPs one day, another one the other day, and so on. Of course, depending on each page’s optimization, strength and links, each page will rank differently, too.

Here’s an example from my site.  

For a while, Google couldn’t decide what page to rank for the keyword, “SaaS SEO consultant.”

First, Google (correctly) ranked my homepage. Then (and strangely enough,) my SaaS copywriter landing page, then the homepage again. At some point, two pages competed for the phrase. A total mess, right?

I realized it and cleaned up the cannibalization, finally. Now, only the dedicated startup SEO consultant page shows up in SERPs.

Whew!

Note how rankings fluctuated with each landing page change too. I admit, these fluctuations may not seem significant. But the example illustrates the effect each page had on where my domain appeared in those search results.

How to Identify Keyword Cannibalization?

Most commonly, you just stumble upon the issue, often unknowingly.

You check your rank tracking results, and notice something's off. and you begin to investigate.

Startup founders often reach out to me, wondering why their content isn’t performing whereas in truth, it does. It's just that their efforts are hindered by keyword cannibalization.

They created a massive pillar page on a topic, for example. The page is an incredible resource, yet, it’s nowhere to be found in SERPs. But they see other pages ranking for the phrase instead.

Or they wonder why so much of their content appears in the search results. At the same time, however, none of these pages manage to outrank the competition.

Some ask why the ranking URL in the rank tracking report changes from time to time too.

All of the above are symptoms of the cannibalization issue. So, if you’re noticing similar symptoms, you, most likely, have it too.

I mentioned this already but it's worth repeating:

Often, you might find issues with the ranking report that could signal keyword cannibalization.

Many rank trackers report on any additional pages appearing in the search results, besides the top-ranking URL.

The tracker I use adds a little plus icon beside the ranking URL to indicate another page in SERPs, for example. You can open it then to find out what the other page is (the icon turns to the minus sign then.)

You can also analyze your site to identify the instances of keyword cannibalization.

Here’s how.

1. Start by listing all pages on your site. Export your sitemap or download the list of landing pages from the Google Search Console. Both options should reveal your key pages on the site.

2. Next, add the target keyword for each page.

3. Now, I also recommend that you add metadata – title tags and description – and the page title information to the mix. The cannibalization might occur on that level too. In such cases, the page targets individual keywords. However, the meta title or description tags suggest it targets an already used phrase instead.  Similarly, whoever wrote the page’s title might have included the wrong keyword, unintentionally. Such an issue might occur when writing SEO-friendly headlines that target multiple keywords, for example.

4. Finally, go through the report. Any pages that target similar keywords should stand out like a sore thumb.

(TIP: Have more than a hundred pages and find it difficult to scan the report for cannibalization? Sort the keyword column alphabetically. You’ll quickly find keyword groups where there should be none.)

How to Fix Keyword Cannibalization

You know what is cannibalization, how to identify the issue, and what damages having it could cause to your SEO. Let’s discuss how you could fix it, then.

I recommend three strategies.

Note - You don’t have to do them all, of course. Each offers its set of benefits (but some downsides too.)

Let’s go through them in detail, then.

1/ Restructuring the taxonomy

This is the simplest and the least invasive option. In general, it requires you to:

• pick the most important page for the keyword first,
• mark it as the source page with a canonical tag.

Well, to be precise, you place the canonical tag pointing to it on all the other assets that cannibalize this page.

By doing the above, you tell Google which is the correct URL to rank for the keyword.

Why this is the least intrusive option?

Because your users won’t see any difference on your pages.

Visitors will see those blog posts and other pages as they were, exactly.

Google, however, will consolidate them, pointing all of their assets – links, page authority, etc. – to the canonical page.

In short, you’ll keep all pages as they were. However, the most important page for the keyword will benefit from their combined authority and strength.

There is a downside to this method, however. By selecting one page as canonical, you take away the other pages’ opportunity to rank and drive traffic.

How does this solution work in practice?

Place the correct canonical tag on every page targeting the keyword. The tag looks like this:

<link rel="canonical" href="URL" />

The URL is the web address of the specific page you want to denote as canonical, of course.

Where to learn more about canonical tags:

Yoast’s incredible guide to canonical tags. This is, probably, the only resource you nee to learn how to use the canonical tag from it, also to overcome the duplicate content issue.

2/ Change or Expand Keywords on Additional Pages

With this method, you can fix the keyword cannibalization issue WHILE ensuring that all pages can rank, just not for the same keywords, of course.

Doing so, however, will require two things:

1. First, you need to conduct in-depth keyword research to find additional phrases to optimize cannibalizing pages for, and

2. Then, you need to rework those other pages and optimize them for those other keywords.  

Your goal with this solution is to change the keywords those other pages target.

Again, start by deciding which page you want to rank for the keyword. You won’t be editing this page (unless only to improve its on-page optimization, of course.)

Then, go deep into the seed keyword. Find out if there aren’t any long-tail keywords you could target with the remaining pages. Granted, applying this solution might still not solve the problem. It’s worth doing, though, if you don’t want to change the site’s architecture.

3/ Consolidate All Pages

Now, I admit that this is the most severe but also, the most effective solution.

In this method, you create a single page of all those cannibalizing assets.

As a result, nothing else remains to rank for your target keyword.

Again, this method has its pros and cons. The biggest concern is losing all the other assets. That, and not knowing how well such a single page will rank in the end.

But, if you have a collection of shorter pages on a similar topic, combine them into a single entity.

However, if you have a long-form, exhaustive guide on the topic already. Your remaining pages only expand on its information, then, considering creating a topic cluster of them.

Doing so would require combining some of the elements of the previous two solutions. But the result might be a cluster that builds up your authority AND targets all keywords along the buying journey.

TIP: When combining those pages, remember to redirect their URLs to the new page with a 301 redirect. This way, you’ll retain their links and authority.

Key Takeaways

Cannibalization occurs to some degree on almost every website.

The problems resulting from having it include not achieving high rankings and risking Google devaluing your critical content.

The three ways to overcome this problem are:

• reworking the site’s architecture,
• expanding the keyword set or
• consolidating all cannibalizing pages into one.

Good luck!

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