Combatting Keyword Cannibalisation
I know what you're thinking…But it isn't little words running around some woodland environment, being hunted and then eaten by other keywords in a bizarre tribal ritual…you were thinking that, right? Anyway…keyword cannibalisation occurs when you attribute the same keyword to multiple pages on your website, be it in the Meta text, title tag or anchor text. The search engine spiders then come to crawl your site and are presented with numerous pages all related to one keyword. This forces the search engine to determine which page it feels is the most relevant in relation to the search carried out and can potentially have damaging effects on the content quality and conversion rate of your website.
More often than not this kind of scenario can crop up due to the over emphasis on targeting a single keyword. If, for example, you are an online shoe store, and simply use the word 'Shoes' in the Title tag of every page, this does not indicate to the search engines that your site is any more relevant to 'Shoes' than any other site targeting that word, nor does it mean you should rank any higher.
The solution to this is a relatively simple one. Instead of focusing on the inclusion of the single word 'Shoes' on multiple pages , more focus should be placed on creating pages with variations, such as 'Ladies Shoes', 'Men's Shoes', 'Kids Shoes' etc., then the search engines can differentiate between them and provide
the most relevant results.
This relies on the creator of the website to provide relevant and high quality content in relation to each of the variations, but this will only increase their value and lead to a better experience for the user as well as making life easier for the search engines.
Variety is the spice of life, and if you want to avoid falling victim to keyword cannibalisation, remember to vary keyword usage.
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