We’ll show you how to use the Keyword Cannibalization to spot, analyze, and fix – you guessed it – keyword cannibalization on your website.
It is quite simply when two or more pages are getting impressions and fighting for traffic for the same keyword / entity and potentially the same search intent.
It’s a problem because:
Look at the queries in the left table (Marked 1 above).
Filter / sort them in a way that matters to you. (You’ll probably want to sort the table by clicks descending to see which queries are experiencing the problem the most). You can filter the queries down by applying the filters in the section marked 6 above.
Look in the right hand column to see the # of pages getting impressions for the query.
Click on a row in left hand table
We provide several hints to help you find the page that matters most for the query / intent:
The page table (marked 2 above) is sorted by clicks descending be default. Thus the pages with the most clicks (and the highest % of Total Clicks will be at the top of the table.
If a page gets > 50% of total Impressions and > 50% of total clicks that row will turn green. This is the strongest hint that you should strengthen rankings signals for this page and potentially deooptimize other pages.
If a page gets > 50% of total clicks then the clicks column will turn green. This is the second strongest signal because this page is already getting the most clicks and looks like this:
If a page gets > 50% of total impressions then the impressions column will turn green. This is the third strongest signal and looks like this:
The stacked area chart for Clicks (marked 3 above) shows how each page is performing for the query. Pay attention to the changes in shapes for each page. A growing shape implies that the page is getting more clicks for the query.
The stacked area chart for Impressions (marked 4 above) shows how each page is performing for impressions for the query. Big changes in how the different pages are performing indicates a potential change in how Google is interpreting the intent, and / or how good a particular page is at answering the query.
TIP: Look at the serps to see what
Use your Judgement! There are scenarios where the above advice is wrong. For example:
This might be a scenario where you have to analyze what ranking signals you’re sending to Google that is confusing it.
1. Are you sending tons of internal links to the guide and not to the collection page?
2. Do the page titles look like they are properly aligned the the intents that you’re trying to rank for?
3. Is the collection page reachable form the homepage?
4. Can you de-optimize the guide by removing the transaction terms from key places on page like the page title, headings, alt text etc?
2. A query has a local and non-local intent. This happens all the time. A user could search for a transactional term from a mobile device and Google serves up your GBP landing page because they think the user is looking for that item near them.
You’ll see this in the data. You’ll see your GBP landing page in the table and you’ll also see a collection page ranking.
And this isn’t a problem. 3. Sitelinks. You’ll often see scenarios where one page will get the vast majority (if not all) of the clicks and the vast majority of the impressions. And then you might see pages in the table with a # that are created by a sticky nav, or a table of contents on the page. This is annoying, but not a problem. It looks like this:
This looks like this:
