Keyword Cannibalization: What it is and How to Fix it
You’ve worked hard to create SEO-friendly, user-focused content, but instead of higher rankings, multiple pages compete for the same keyword. Your best content gets buried, visitors land on less relevant pages, and your rankings and conversions take a hit.
Keyword cannibalization happens when your content works against you. It confuses search engines, dilutes your authority, and hurts your rankings.
In this article, I’ll show you how to identify and resolve keyword cannibalization issues so you can protect your rankings and drive more conversions.
What is keyword cannibalization?
Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages on your site target the same keyword and search intent, creating confusion for search engines.
It makes it harder for search engine bots to determine the most relevant page, leading to lower-quality pages competing with your best content.
For example, imagine you search for email marketing on Google and find several blog posts from the same site targeting that keyword.
Which one would you click?
This overlap creates competition between the site’s pages, causing fluctuations in search rankings and frustrating users.
It’s important to note that keyword cannibalization doesn’t happen by coincidence.
Issues often arises when you:
- Optimize multiple pages for similar keywords that fulfill the same search intent
- Fail to consolidate outdated pages after publishing newer ones
- Publish similar content repeatedly
- Mismanage e-commerce product and category page optimization
Why is keyword cannibalization bad for SEO?
Here’s how keyword cannibalization negatively impacts your site:
Decreased organic rankings and traffic
When multiple pages target the same keyword, search engines struggle to identify the most relevant page to rank. This leads to keyword ranking fluctuations, reducing traffic to your best-performing pages.
Wasted crawl budget
Search engines allocate a crawl budget for each site, limiting the number of pages bots can crawl before indexing. According to Google, duplicate content can waste this budget.
Source: Google Search Central
When keyword cannibalization occurs, bots repeatedly crawl cannibalized pages, delaying the indexing and ranking of more important pages and harming your site’s overall performance.
Loss of valuable internal link equity
Internal links help search engines understand the relationship between pages and are a key ranking factor. However, when multiple pages target the same keyword, internal link equity (the value passed through internal links) becomes fragmented.
For example, two Semrush blog posts target and rank on Google search result pages for “SEO trends in 2024.”
Any internal links with the anchor text “SEO trends in 2024” must be divided between the two pages. This fragmentation reduces the authority signal passed to the preferred page, potentially lowering its ranking. Readers following internal links to a less relevant page may have a poor experience, increasing bounce rates.
Difficulty identifying underperforming pages
Keyword cannibalization spreads traffic across multiple pages, making it harder to identify which ones are underperforming. The overlap prevents you from spotting opportunities to optimize the page that could deliver the best results.
When keyword cannibalization isn’t an issue
Not all cases of multiple pages ranking for the same keyword are problematic. For instance:
Different search intent
Example: Saleshandy has multiple pages ranking for “cold email guide.”
One provides general information about cold emails, while another offers cold email templates. Since the pages fulfill different intents, there’s no conflict.
Targeting different locations
Example: McDonald’s has separate landing pages for different countries, such as the UK, the US, and South Africa.
While these pages may rank for the same keyword, they serve distinct geographic locations, which is acceptable.
How to discover keyword cannibalization
Keyword cannibalization can appear as a minor problem but can make your SEO efforts fruitless. Let’s explore three steps to find these issues on your site:
1. Use Moz’s Pro keyword explorer tool
Moz keyword explorer is a keyword research tool that analyzes your search rankings to identify potential keyword cannibalization. You’ll need a Moz Pro subscription to access this tool but you can try it out with a 30-day free trial.
A key differentiator is that you don’t have to import keywords to discover cannibalization issues on your site. Keyword Explorer automatically fetches your ranking keywords and shows you the keywords with multiple-page rankings.
To check cannibalization issues, sign in to your Moz Pro account and go to Keyword Explorer. Under the Keyword Research menu, click the drop-down beside Explore by Site and select Ranking Keywords.