Multiple pages on your website ranking for the same keyword might not always be your best SEO strategy. When you have multiple pages ranking for the same keyword, you force your pages to compete with each other.
This is called “keyword cannibalization.”
This is often the case for very general terms that are the content stars on every page of your site. While you do want to maintain the use of broad terms, you also need to use longer-tail keywords to hone in specific pages.
How do you know you have keyword cannibalization?
Simply create a keyword matrix by listing all of your site’s important URLs, their meta info, and their keywords. Look for how many duplicate entries there are.
How do you fix keyword cannibalization?
- Consolidate that Content: If you have pages focusing on the same broad keywords, they could likely be combined.
- Restructure Your Website: A simple solution could just be a little organization. Often you can take your most authoritative page and turn it into a landing page.
- Create New Landing Pages: Or you might need to make a unique landing page to serve as your authoritative source page that links to all of your variations from there. That way you target broad keyword terms with your consolidated pages, but long-tail keywords on your variations.
- Find New Keywords: If your page structure is already solid, revisit your keyword strategy!
- Use 301 Redirects: Don’t go heavy-handed with this one, but using 301s might help you consolidate content by linking less relevant pages to a more authoritative one.
See the full list of examples and details on keyword cannibalization at the Search Engine Journal’s post.
