Keyword Cannibalization: How to Find, Fix, and Prevent It

Key Takeaways 

• Keyword cannibalization happens when different pages target the same keyword and cover the same search intent. 
• Detection methods: Use the “site:” search, check URL ranking on GSC, access the Cannibalization Report, or examine Ahrefs’ historical rankings.
• Solutions to cannibalization in SEO: Redirects, Canonical Tags, Optimizing Links and Content, Content Creation, and Noindex Tags.

What Is Keyword Cannibalization In SEO?

Keyword cannibalization in SEO is an issue that occurs when different pages on a site target the same keywords and cover the same search intent. Consequently, they compete against each other, undermining their individual search engine rankings. 

This confusion happens because search engines struggle to discern which page is the most relevant result for users’ queries.

There are various causes of the SEO keyword cannibalization issues, such as:

• Publish similar content repeatedly over time.
• Introduce a new version of a page without adequately redirecting the old one.
• Create multiple pathways to the same product category.
• Optimize different pages for the same keyword.
• Refrain from optimizing subcategory pages.

Keyword cannibalization isn’t solely a matter of repeating the same keyword across numerous pages. You can still target the same keyword with distinct search intents on different pages. 

For instance, the keyword “hotels in Texas Houston” has mixed search intents. When you enter this term in the Google search bar, a list of hotels in Houston is the first thing that appears on the search engine result page (SERP) known as commercial pages (examples like the image below):

Commercial results appear when you search “hotels in Texas Houston.”

However, if you scroll down, there are also informational pages that provide detailed information about hotels in Houston. 

Informational results appear when you search “hotels in Texas Houston.”

So, if you have a hotel site, you can develop both types of pages and target the keyword on each without causing keyword cannibalization in SEO. This approach will further enhance your chances of ranking higher and provide users with a better experience.

Meanwhile, with branded keywords (keywords containing your brand name), it’s common to secure different high rankings for the same keyword simultaneously. Thus, you don’t need to worry about keyword cannibalization with most branded keywords as long as each page adequately covers the user’s search intent.

A typical example of using branded keywords effectively is Apple. The brand dominates the top three organic results for “MacBook Pro 13 inch.”

Top three organic results for the keyword “MacBook Pro 13 inch”

From this image, we can see:

• The first result introduces critical product features and helps users understand the product’s main attributes.
• The second result guides buyers through the checkout process for a seamless shopping experience.
• The third result provides in-depth product specifications, catering to users seeking detailed technical information.

Targeting the same keyword across different pages enables Apple to dominate the SERP and drive traffic. This case isn’t keyword cannibalization because each page serves a distinct purpose.

Is Keyword Cannibalization Bad?

How does keyword cannibalization harm your site?

Once you understand “what is keyword cannibalization?”, another question arises: Is it harmful for SEO? The short answer is yes. This issue influences your website in many ways:

• Affect your site’s organic performance: When several pages target the same keyword, they confuse search engines and affect each other’s performance. 
• Diminish the effectiveness of backlinks: When backlinks are spread across pages targeting the same keyword, it hampers the ability of individual pages to build strong authority.
• Lead to poor user experience: This issue complicates delivering information to users, leading to increased bounce rates and decreased engagement on the website. 
• Make it challenging to manage content: Content management becomes harder when resources and efforts are scattered across multiple pages with overlapping keyword targets.

However, there is one thing to consider: when two pages target the same keyword, one might rank #1 while the other is absent from search results. This situation seems like typical keyword cannibalization, with one page siphoning traffic from another.

Yet, if these pages also rank for numerous other keywords, should you be concerned about traffic from just one keyword?

In this case, deleting or combining one of these pages could lead to a drop in traffic. You might lose rankings for other keywords for which those pages perform well.

Therefore, it’s crucial to remember that keyword cannibalization in SEO only becomes a real problem when numerous pages focus on the same keyword and negatively impact the website’s overall performance.

How to Detect Cannibalized Keywords

Here are four methods to identify cannibalized keywords:

1. Search Your Site

Searching your site directly through Google is a simple way to detect cannibalization issues. To do this, navigate to Google and type in “site:yourwebsite.com” followed by the topic you’re interested in. 

For example, if you want to check “content marketing” on ROI Digitally’s site, search “site:roidigitally.com content marketing.” The result will display all the pages on our site related to that topic.

“content marketing” related content on ROI Digitally site

Then, inspect the results. Are there different pages covering the same search intent? If yes, there’s a potential keyword cannibalization issue that needs attention.

Note: Google’s “site:” searches may return results that do not match your query. For instance, while there are 110 results for the search above, not all of these pages pose a problem of keyword cannibalization. 

2. Monitor Google Search Console

How do you check keyword cannibalism using Google Search Console (GSC)? Follow these steps:

• Step 1: Sign in to GSC and click on “Search results” in the “Performance” menu.

Opening GSC’s “Search results” section

• Step 2: Scroll through the list to view the search queries your site has appeared for.
• Step 3: Click on a keyword you’re interested in to filter the results for that specific query.
• Step 4: Click “+ New” and “Query…” to set up a custom filter and check multiple related keywords simultaneously.
• Step 5: Go to the “PAGES” tab to see which URL ranks for the selected query.

Check URLs in GSC

If various URLs receive clicks and impressions for the same keyword, it might indicate keyword cannibalization in SEO.

• Step 6: Review these pages manually to see if they serve similar search intents. Then, take action to resolve the issue.

3. Use SEMrush’s Cannibalization Report

To identify keyword cannibalization, assess whether the pages fulfill the same user need.  Consider SEMrush’s Position Tracking tool, which provides insights into the Cannibalization Report.

Here is the step-by-step guide to access and analyze this report:

• Step 1: Enter your domain and click “Set up tracking.”
• Step 2: Choose the location where you want to track rankings and click “Continue To Keywords.”
• Step 3: Add your target keywords and click “Add keywords to campaign” and “Start Tracking.” to set up the project.

Set up the project to detect keyword cannibalization issues.

• Step 4: Navigate to the “Cannibalization” tab and scroll down to the Cannibalization” section.
• Step 5:  Explore the “Keywords” breakdown and expand any result to see ranking URLs, position, and search volume.

4. Check Ahrefs’ Historic Rankings

The following practice is using Ahrefs’ historic rankings. Here’s how you do it in Site Explorer:

• Step 1: Open the Site Explorer and enter your domain.
• Step 2: Navigate to the Organic Keywords report.
• Step 3: Filter for the keyword you’re checking.
• Step 4: Click the ranking history dropdown and examine whether those URLs address the same topic.

Ahrefs’ historic rankings

But that’s not all: There is another way to detect keyword cannibalization issues using Ahrefs if Google lists multiple URLs for a single keyword.

Step 1: Enter your domain and navigate to the Organic Keywords report.

Step 2: Toggle the “Multiple URLs only” option.

However, this method may not always yield results because Google typically avoids ranking multiple pages from the same host.

Note: Not all keywords you find are cannibalization issues. So, verify by examining the SERP and ranking history to confirm the presence of a real cannibalization problem.

How to Fix Keyword Cannibalization

The basis of fixing keyword cannibalization issues is to choose one preferred page and signal to Google to rank it highest. Here are five common methods to do that:

Method	When It Is Best For
Redirects	You no longer need similar or duplicate pages.
Canonical Tags	You want to retain duplicate pages.
Optimize Links and Content	You need to keep similar pages.
Content Creation	Existing pages don’t fulfill the search intent for your target keyword.
Noindex Tags	Retaining similar pages and other solutions is not feasible.

Let’s explore each option to decide which fits your needs and circumstances best.

1. Redirects

Imagine you have numerous pages targeting the same keyword with the same search intent, such as nearly identical FAQ pages. Redirects can resolve the issue of keyword cannibalization.

Note: Many redirect all their overlapping pages to a new one. However, it’s typically better to enhance the performance of an existing page rather than start from scratch.

Follow this step-by-step guide to start:

• Step 1: Analyze overlapping URLs

 The first thing to do is examine all the URLs that target the same keyword and fulfill similar intents. 

• Step 2: Choose the preferred page 

Typically, you should choose the page with the strongest SEO potential. We recommend deciding by looking at these metrics:

• Backlinks: Measure the number of backlinks pointing to each page.
• Rankings: Determine which page currently ranks highest for the targeted keywords.
• Traffic: Review the total number of visits to each page over the past 30 days.

Once you’ve selected the preferred page, you can consolidate your content and redirect overlapping pages. 

• Step 3: Draft an updated version 

Add valuable information from the cannibalized pages and optimize the content of your preferred page for target keywords. 

• Step 4: Publish the new version

Implement redirects from the cannibal pages to the preferred page, signaling to Google that they’ve been replaced. 

• Step 5: Update internal links

Identify and update any internal links pointing to redirected pages to prevent internal redirects.

As Google recommends, remove the redirected URLs from your sitemap to further enhance your website’s structure. 

Pro tip: Google usually removes redirected URLs from its index within a few weeks. However, we recommend keeping the redirects in place for at least a year to ensure a smooth transition.

By redirecting, you effectively concentrate the “ranking power” in one location and resolve keyword cannibalization in SEO.

2. Canonical Tags

Canonical tags

There are several situations when you need to keep similar pages on your site, even if they don’t add much SEO value, such as:

• PPC Landing Pages: Pages specifically for pay-per-click ads.
• Alternate Paths to Products: URLs leading to the same product category.
• Pages with Complex Parameters: Pages with long URLs containing various parameters.

What should you do in these cases? Use canonical tag se in canonicalization to direct Google to the original version of a duplicate page. 

This tag, placed in the cannibal page’s HTTP header, looks like this:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/preferred-page/" />

These canonical tags tell search engines which page you prefer to display in search results. They also concentrate your ranking influence on a single page instead of spreading it across various URLs.

3. Optimizing Links and Content

Let’s say you own a technology website and create these two pages:

• A “/tablets/” category page with links and content about gaming tablets.
• A “/tablets/gaming/” subcategory page with no links and less relevant content.

Google might rank the “/tablets/” page higher for the keyword “gaming tablets.”

To guide Google correctly, link the cannibal  “/tablets/” page to the preferred “/tablets/gaming/” page. Use the cannibalized keyword “gaming tablets” as the anchor text to emphasize the relevance of the preferred page, like this:

Use the cannibalized keyword as anchor text.

Use internal linking to the “/tablets/gaming/” page from other related pages on your site.

Besides, consider building backlinks (external links) to your preferred page, which can further boost its rankings. 

You can learn how to optimize links from renowned websites like Best Buy. Its gaming laptop category page strategically places the keyword “gaming tablets” in critical areas such as the title tag, URL slug, H1 tag, and product listings.

Optimize links on Best Buy.

Finally, focus on optimizing your preferred page for your target keyword. 

Tools like SEMrush’s On-Page SEO Checker offers optimization suggestions based on your target keywords’ top 10 search results.

4. Content Creation

A typical scenario that leads to keyword cannibalization is targeting the same keyword on different pages, but none meets the searcher’s needs. In this case, consider merging their content to create a new page. It should contain comprehensive and valuable information related to the targeted keyword.

Imagine you have category pages for “wall decals” and “wall mirrors.”  Both target the keyword “wall decor.”

To address the potential issue of keyword cannibalization, create a comprehensive “wall decor” category page. This page should contain products and information from your decals and mirror list. Optimize it using our on-page SEO checklist to enhance its relevance and visibility.

These pages perform effectively on SERP.

But that’s not all. It’s crucial to “de-optimize” your decal and mirror pages for the “ wall decor” keyword. There are two common ways to do it:

• Replace mentions of “wall decor” with more relevant keywords, such as “wall decals” and “wall mirrors.”
• Include a link to the new “wall decor” page using anchor text like “wall decor.”

Over time, this new page will reduce the keyword cannibalization issue and provide a more streamlined user experience for relevant shoppers. 

5. Noindex Tags

How do I fix keyword cannibalization when the above methods are not feasible? The solution here is to use noindex tags.

The noindex tag is an HTML element that signals search engines not to index a webpage. It looks like this:

<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex” />

You can use the noindex tag on cannibal pages to prevent them from competing with your preferred page in search results. However, it’s crucial to note that noindex tags do not transfer ranking signals to other pages.

Therefore, only use the noindex tag when other solutions are not feasible. Otherwise, you may lose keywords that are already ranking for that page.

Conclusion

Many traditional approaches to keyword cannibalization can cause more harm than good. Therefore, avoid publishing pages targeting the same keyword and serving the same search intent to prevent this issue. Always conduct a thorough check of your site before creating or optimizing content. 

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do you do a keyword cannibalization audit?

There are various ways to do a keyword cannibalization audit, including but not limited to:

• Use the “site:” operator
• Monitor Google Search Console
• Use SEMrush’s Cannibalization Report
• Check Ahrefs’ Historic Rankings

2. What is cannibalization and how do you fix cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization is an issue that occurs when numerous pages on a website target the same keywords and cover the same search intent. You can fix cannibalization using one of these five methods:

• Redirects
• Canonical tags
• Optimizing links and content
• Content Creation
• Noindex Tags