What Is Keyword Cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization transpires when a singular keyword or phrase is employed across multiple pages within your website. Vigilance is warranted to avoid this practice, as it can precipitate significant challenges in your SEO rankings.
Why is this problematic? The difficulty arises when numerous pages vie for supremacy in a shared keyword. This leaves search engines grappling to ascertain the page most pertinent to display in search results. Consequently, your organic rankings may deteriorate, leading to missed opportunities for traffic and potential leads.

What’s more, cannibalization can also make it difficult for people to navigate your website. If they land on a page that doesn’t have the information they’re looking for, they may get frustrated and leave.

The Importance of User Intent

In keyword cannibalization, the pivotal factor is the user’s search intent, which signifies the underlying purpose behind a particular search query.
To illustrate, one individual might conduct a search for “red sneakers” with the intent to make a purchase. In contrast, another individual might explore the same query to delve into the history of red sneakers. This is precisely where the issue of keyword cannibalization comes into play.
If you have multiple pages on your website all vying for the same keyword, but each page caters to distinct user intent, it can confound search engines when determining which page to display in response to that query.
Therefore, to circumvent keyword cannibalization, it is imperative to factor in user intent meticulously. Each page should be meticulously tailored to align with a specific user intent corresponding to the keyword. Neglecting this crucial consideration may inadvertently set the stage for internal competition and, ultimately, harm your search engine rankings.

Signs of Keyword Cannibalization

Several unmistakable indicators can point to keyword cannibalization and its adverse impact on your search rankings, with the primary sign being lackluster rankings for your targeted keywords.
When you are actively pursuing multiple closely related keywords, yet only a limited few among them are demonstrating robust rankings, the remaining keywords are likely falling prey to cannibalization.
Another conspicuous signal emerges in the form of erratic fluctuations in search traffic concerning specific keywords. Abrupt declines or unpredictable surges in search traffic for a particular keyword may serve as an alarm bell, suggesting that Google could penalize your website due to keyword cannibalization.
Last, a noticeable decline in the click-through rate for a particular keyword warrants attention. Such a dip in click-through rate implies that searchers are finding your website, but regrettably, their expectations are not being met. The emergence of any of these warning signs underscores the importance of taking proactive measures to rectify the issue.

How to Fix Keyword Cannibalization

Do you suspect that you might be guilty of keyword cannibalization according to the signs above? There are a few steps you can take to fix the problem.

Remove or Redirect Cannibalized Pages

To resolve keyword cannibalization, you have two practical options for handling cannibalized pages:

1. Deletion: You can eliminate cannibalized pages by removing them from your website entirely.
2. 301 Redirect: If you prefer not to delete these pages, consider implementing a 301 redirect to guide users to another page on your website. This redirection strategy not only helps retain existing link equity and traffic but also effectively addresses the issue of keyword cannibalization.

No-Index Cannibalized Pages

An alternative approach is to employ a “no-index” directive for the underperforming pages. This instructs search engines to exclude these pages from their crawling and indexing process.

You can implement the “no-index” directive through two methods:

1. By incorporating the robots meta tag on the specific pages.
2. By making adjustments to your website’s robots.txt file.

Subsequently, concentrate on enhancing and optimizing the retained pages to bolster their rankings and proactively prevent any potential future instances of keyword cannibalization.

Create Canonical Links

By precisely designating the appropriate URL for a piece of content, you facilitate search engines in determining the primary and most significant version of that content.
This becomes especially crucial when your website contains duplicate content or offers multiple pathways to access the same information, such as through distinct URL parameters.
By establishing canonical links, you develop a mechanism to guarantee that search engines correctly index the preferred rendition of your content. This not only aids in maintaining the integrity of your content but also ensures that your users consistently land on the specific page you intend for them to access.

Rewrite Website Content for Better Optimization

Once you’ve implemented one of the strategies above, engaging in content revision is advisable, with a particular focus on keyword optimization.
This step is pivotal in guaranteeing that your content aligns with the appropriate keywords that match the intended search intent. Furthermore, it’s prudent to refresh your website content for various reasons regularly.
You can ascertain that each page concentrates on a keyword or phrase through content rewriting. This deliberate approach contributes significantly to improving your search engine rankings.
Furthermore, content revision enhances the user-friendliness and relevance of your web pages, thereby better catering to your target audience’s needs.

Create Intent-Focused Content

While revising your existing content or crafting new material, it’s imperative to prioritize creating intent-driven content.
Regrettably, many businesses produce content solely to accommodate specific keywords, often paying attention to the genuine needs of the user. Consequently, this approach can lead to the proliferation of duplicate or overly similar content that fails to address the user’s queries effectively.
A more effective strategy involves developing content purposefully tailored to fulfill the user’s intent, irrespective of keyword considerations. This entails dedicating time and effort to comprehend your target audience’s precise demands and inquiries, subsequently crafting content that offers substantial value and assistance.
Leveraging Google Search Console can be immensely beneficial in this endeavor. It provides insights into common search queries, enabling you to discern how individuals search for your business and the terms you currently rank for. With this knowledge, you can fine-tune your content strategy to better align with user expectations and preferences.

Get Help With Your SEO Strategy

At SarkarSEO, we recognize the paramount importance of a thriving SEO strategy for businesses striving to maintain their competitiveness in the online landscape. We are acutely aware that the challenge of keyword cannibalization can impede SEO success.
Hence, we present budget-friendly, personalized SEO packages meticulously crafted to address your unique requirements. If you’re prepared to propel your business to new heights, don’t hesitate to contact us today. Let us demonstrate the results we can deliver for you.

Search is never guaranteed, said John Mueller

It all began with a user posting a thread asking if they could use Indexing API to quicken their way into Google’s indexing. It came from a place where the user expressed dissatisfaction about how sites re-publishing identical content were getting indexed faster. John was quick to dismiss the idea stating that API is reserved for special cases such as job postings or live streams. He then went on to share some tips on what can one do to get their website indexed faster while also making a big statement that search is never guaranteed.

He said “Search is never guaranteed, and there are tons of sites that are trying to push their updates into Google.”

Tips on how to get your website indexed sooner than later

John admitted that it be challenging to ensure that the content being contributed by people meets Google’s criteria, as well as frustrating for websites owners to see that the website has still not found its way into the index. To that end, he shared some tips and insights that could help newer websites and those willing to open one. In summary, it all comes down how they can make their website more valuable as well as unique so that Google’s indexing will prefer that over other websites competing for an index.

He added:

“I think what ultimately works best is that you prove to Google (and users) that the updates you’re providing are valuable: unique, compelling, high-quality, and not something that’s already published elsewhere. I realize that’s hard when it comes to user-generated content which I assume some of this will be, but ultimately your site is what you publish, regardless of where it initially comes from.

So the more you can do to make sure the indexable content on your site is easily findable and significantly valuable to the web, the more likely Google will be able to pick it up quickly and that can mean that you block content that you determine is less-valuable from being indexed, for example.”

Websites can help their cause by displaying new updates on the homepage

He then concluded with saying that the website owners could help their chances by simply adding or displaying updated content on the homepage itself, as Google usually refreshed homepages more frequently than any other pages on the website. And that that is one way to ensure get into Google’s indexing radar. It may only be a slight change or addition, but it does signal and alter Google’s algorithm that there’s new content that has been added to the website’s content repository.

“One of the things even smaller, newer sites can do is to mention and link to updates on their homepages. Google usually refreshes homepages more frequently, so if there’s something important & new, make sure you have it there. Many sites do this intuitively, with a sidebar or a section for updates, mentioning the new headlines & linking to the content.”

Source: Search Engine Journal

1. Google Search Shortcuts

Gone are the days when you would just type in textual query and wait for the results to be displayed. Then came the voice search, followed by uploading screenshots, translating text with Google Lens, and find songs by just humming the tune into the microphone. Now Google is about to take things to the next level and all these shortcuts more apparent by displaying tappable shortcuts, to begin with, on the Google App for iOS. Then slowly rolling it out onto other mobile operating systems.

2. Search Bar Results

Earlier, and even now, you had to type in the query in the search bar, hit enter, and wait for the results to be displayed. All that is about to change and get quicker. Google is planning to start displaying the top results while you’re still typing in the search bar instead of waiting for you to submit that query. The said feature is scheduled to be rolled in the coming months and is sure to make search experience all the more richer and quicker.

3. Enhanced Query Refinements

Relevance search results is the order of the day at Google, with the company having come miles in the last few years in offering search results that are more specific than any other search engine. And they are planning to take all this to the next level by making it even easier to find the most relevant search results by further refining your search query. The search giant would do so by offering ideas based on what you’re typing and making it even more specific. We’re in for a ride.

4. Google Web Stories

Google plans on making mobile search more visually appealing by integrating the ‘Google Web Stories’ element and taking it to the next level. The users will see them in the search results and will have the option to tap them in order to enter the full screen mode. Here’s what Google stated about the same.

“So we’re also making it easier to explore a subject by highlighting the most relevant and helpful information, including content from creators on the open web. For topics like cities, you may see visual stories and short videos from people who have visited, tips on how to explore the city, things to do, how to get there and other important aspects you might want to know about as you plan your travels.”

5. Combining Text, Images, and Videos

No more separate sections for text, images, and videos after submit that search query. Google is planning to integrate all that into one, single streamlined feed for search results, which means that the text, images, videos results from a search query will all be displayed on the front page itself. Meanwhile, they are still keeping the option to continue to scroll and get to the related queries, taking search experience to an all new level. Here’s what Google said.

“We’re also reimagining the way we display results to better reflect the ways people explore topics. You’ll see the most relevant content, from a variety of sources, no matter what format the information comes in — whether that’s text, images or video.”

Crawling and Indexing does have an impact on the environment.

Gary brought to light that computing itself isn’t very environmentally sustainable in general. And since both crawling and indexing happen virtually, one is naturally inclined to assume that it has no impact on the environment as it is carbon-free. But that is not the case at all. Gary said:

“… what I mean is that computing, in general, is not really sustainable. And if you think of Bitcoin, for example, Bitcoin mining has real impact on the environment that you can actually measure, especially if the electricity is coming from coal plants or other less sustainable plants.

We are carbon-free, since I don’t even know, 2007 or something, 2009, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t reduce even more our footprint on the environment. And crawling is one of those things that early on, we could chop off some low-hanging fruits.”

How does Google intend to make crawling and indexing more environmentally sustainable?

To the uninitiated, there are two types of crawling in general: crawling to discover and crawling to refresh. While the former happens to discover new and updated content, the latter happens to refresh existing content.  Gary went on to say that one of the ways crawling can be more sustainable is by reducing the number of Refresh Crawls on websites that don’t update their content as frequently as others. Citing an example of the Wall Street Journal, he further added that since sites like the Wall Street Journal are frequently updating their homepage with new content, so these homepages need to be crawled to refresh frequently, as opposed to say their About page, which in comparison, always almost remains the same. So Google can help make a difference by crawling such pages less frequently.

Here’s what Gary had to say about it.

“… one thing that we do, and we might not need to do that much, is refresh crawls. Which means that once we discovered a document, a URL, then we go, we crawl it, and then, eventually, we are going to go back and revisit that URL. That is a refresh crawl. And then every single time we go back to that one URL, that will always be a refresh crawl. Now, how often do we need to go back to that URL?”

“So you don’t have to go back there that much. And often, we can’t estimate this well, and we definitely have room for improvement there on refresh crawls. Because sometimes it just seems wasteful that we are hitting the same URL over and over again. Sometimes we are hitting 404 pages, for example, for no good reason or no apparent reason. And all these things are basically stuff that we could improve on and then reduce our footprint even more.”

What does this mean for your website?

If you are under the impression that a high crawl rate, even if you’re not updating your content frequently, is a positive ranking signal, you are mistaken. Gary was quick to dismiss the issue raised by John, and said that a high crawl rate doesn’t necessarily translates to better or higher rankings. Here is a snippet from the conversation between John, Gary, and Martin.

John: [00:09:06] So I guess that’s kind of also a misconception that people have in that they think if a page gets crawled more, it’ll get ranked more. Is that correct that that’s a misconception, or is that actually true?

Gary: [00:09:20] It’s a misconception.

John: [00:09:20] OK, so no need to try to force something to be re-crawled if it doesn’t actually change. It’s not going to rank better.

Martin: [00:09:28] I mean it doesn’t make sense, right? If nothing has changed on the page, then we already know everything there is to know about that page. Why would that be a thing that makes it more relevant or more useful to users? It doesn’t make sense.

Since more crawling doesn’t mean higher rankings, we guess it won’t be such a bad thing for your website after all. But again, this is all conjecture at this moment as nothing is confirmed. But it certainly makes sense to refresh-crawl pages that are updated more often than the ones that rarely are. You can listen to this new episode titled ‘What to expect from Search Central in 2022’ of Search Off The Record Podcast here and if you’d like Download its Transcript to read and refer to later.

Source: Search Engine Journal

What is Mobile-first Indexing?

As per Google’s official statement, “Mobile-first indexing means Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking. Historically, the index primarily used the desktop version of a page’s content when evaluating the relevance of a page to a user’s query. Since the majority of users now access Google Search with a mobile device, Googlebot primarily crawls and indexes pages with the smartphone agent going forward. Starting July 1, 2019, mobile-first indexing is enabled by default for all new websites (new to the web or previously unknown to Google Search).”

Mobile-first Indexing Postponed by Google

It was announced in a new blog post from Google, written by none other John Mueller, who stated:

“..after analyzing the sites that are not yet indexed mobile-first, we’ve determined that some of these sites are still not ready to be shifted over due to various, unexpected challenges that they’re facing. Because of these difficulties, we’ve decided to leave the timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing.

…we thought that we could complete the move to mobile-first indexing by March 2021. However, we found that some sites were facing unexpectedly difficult challenges and we wanted to accommodate their timelines.

We currently don’t have a specific final date for the move to mobile-first indexing and want to be thoughtful about the remaining bigger steps in that direction.”

Why Mobile-first Index was happening in the first place?

It was roughly five years ago, November 2016, that Google acknowledged the problem first, stating that:

“…our ranking systems still typically look at the desktop version of a page’s content to evaluate its relevance to the user. This can cause issues when the mobile page has less content than the desktop page because our algorithms are not evaluating the actual page that is seen by a mobile searcher.”

In short, there were discrepancies in the search results shown on desktop and mobiles for the same page whose desktop version was indexed by Google. It was to address this problem that 100% Mobile-first indexing was decided in the first place, to not use the content from the desktop versions of the websites for indexing or naturally, ranking. And as of yesterday, the final date for the 100% switchover has been left open-ended by Google.

Why should it concern you?

If you have a website that is your bread, butter, and jam, it is of prime importance that you switch to a mobile-friendly version i.e. optimize your website for mobiles and other handheld devices. Because as of January 2021, in a research report shared by Statista, nearly 90% of the internet users surf the web using their mobiles or tablets. So, even though 100% mobile-friendly indexing has been postponed by Google, it still prioritizes and favours websites that are mobile-friendly. The sooner you do it, the better it is for your website and business.

If you are questions or concerns regarding Mobile-first indexing, we recommend you go through this mobile-first indexing best practices guide, charted out by Google. You can also opt for one of our Monthly SEO Packages, which include a detailed On-page Audit that will tell you where improvements need to be made.