A common myth is that if more pages on your site target a specific keyword, you are going to rank well for that keyword. According to this concept, you can actually insist Google more on picking your pages for ranking.

Well, it is not true actually.

As a matter of fact, targeting one phrase or keyword across multiple pages can have the opposite effect. And it will be more harmful for the SEO of your website. The reason is that when you target one keyword across different pages on your site, you actually make those pages compete with each other. They are not going to work in a collaboration which you were assuming.

As a result of this scenario, each of those pages will have lower CTR, poor authority and dissatisfactory conversion rate.

This misstep is called Keyword Cannibalization.

Identifying keyword cannibalization

Identifying and fixing the keyword cannibalization is quite easy. We will talk about the identification of the problem first. This process is much similar to that of creating the keyword matrix.

You will first have to create a spreadsheet in which all of the site’s important pages and their associated keywords will be listed. You can also use the keyword mapping tool.

This data will be based on a list of important URLs and the keywords associated with the pages of those URLs. Then you are going to have to look for any duplication. If there is duplication, it means that your site is suffering from keyword cannibalization.

Fixing the keyword cannibalization

Your approach in solving the keyword cannibalization problem mainly depends upon the root of the problem. Having that said, there are a few solutions which you can go for in order to fix the issue of keyword cannibalization.

• The simplest solution that can help you eliminate the keyword cannibalization is the restructuring of your website. This method mainly involves turning your most authoritative page into a landing page.
• There may be a case in which you lack a landing page that consolidates all of the product pages in one place. In this scenario, you can create a new landing page and link it to all of the unique variations. This page is going to server as your authoritative source page.
• If multiple pages on your site target the same keyword and those pages do not offer uniqueness of content, you can consider consolidating the content. In other words, you take multiple underperforming pages and combine them to make one authoritative source of information.
• If you already have unique content in the pages across your website but you are using poor keyword strategy, you can consider finding new keywords for the pages. In this scenario, you are going to have to make sure that the keywords are aligned with the content in the pages from the perspective of context.

These are a few but highly effective ways to fix keyword cannibalization. Since this problem has become more prevalent these days; and so, it is very important to keep your pages and keywords under a tight check to make sure that your site is performing well.