What is Keyword Cannibalization?

Imagine that you are the coach of a team of runners and that several of them have qualified for the same race. You would probably want to see each of them in their own lane, focusing on their own race and performing as well as they possibly could. You wouldn’t want them trying to elbow each other out of the way, and letting runners from other teams easily surpass them, right? 

Of course not. Yet in a sense, that’s what often happens with website content—specifically, with the use of keywords. It might seem like a good idea to have multiple pages from one website targeting the same keywords, on the theory that at least one of them is sure to rank well. But in practice, your website pages might perform like those hapless runners. And in the meantime, your competitor’s “runner” could be cruising to victory at the top of the search engine results page (SERP). 

That’s keyword cannibalization. When you have multiple pages targeting the same keyword for the same purpose, it dilutes the power of each. Let’s talk about how that happens, and how to avoid it. 

How Keyword Cannibalization Happens

When multiple pages on a website compete for the same keyword, it dilutes the SEO potential for any one of those pages. That can happen in a variety of ways, including:

• Optimizing similar website pages for the same keyword, such as “Ann Arbor probate lawyer”
• Publishing pieces of content that are too similar, like multiple blog posts on the same topic
• Targeting too-similar keywords on several pages, like using the phrases “family law attorney” and “divorce attorney” on multiple practice area pages
• Creating an updated page on your website without redirecting the older page
• Failing to optimize subcategory pages, like “car accidents” and “slip and fall injuries”, so that they end up competing with a main practice area page, like “personal injury”

It’s good to have lots of content on your law firm website: not only does that suggest to search engines that you are an authority, but it gives your real-life readers useful information that makes them trust you more. That said, it’s important that that content be properly optimized so that those readers can find you. 

Keyword cannibalization confuses search engines, which means that Google and other search engines may not know which of your pages should rank for a particular keyword. That keeps your pages from ranking—and from getting in front of the people who need to see them. When users land on a page that might not be the best one for their needs, that also reduces both click-through rate and conversion rate. 

Right about now, you may be wondering: “How can I have a website full of pages about my practice, talking about what I do, without engaging in keyword cannibalization?” After all, if you are a family law attorney, it’s a little challenging to tell people what you do without using certain words repeatedly. 

When Using the Same Words Doesn’t Result in Keyword Cannibalization

Let’s be clear: just using the same words on various pages of your website doesn’t automatically constitute keyword cannibalization. For example, if you are offering people legal services, it’s going to be a challenge to convey that without being able to use common words or phrases like “attorney,” “lawyer,” or “law firm.” Simply using those words isn’t the same as targeting specific keywords.

But even if you are targeting the same keyword (like “estate planning attorney”) on multiple pages, you can still avoid keyword cannibalization, so long as the pages have different purposes, and are addressing different user search intents. What exactly does that mean? 

Not everybody searching “estate planning attorney” is doing so for the same reason, and search engines make a distinction. For instance, one person might be searching that term because they want to understand more about what an estate planning attorney does. Another person knows they need to make an estate plan, but they are trying to figure out how to choose the right estate planning attorney for their needs. Still another person might be ready to contact an attorney and make an appointment for a consultation. 

That might translate into having an FAQ page targeting the keyword for those seeking basic information, a blog post about how to choose an estate planning attorney for someone who is  researching next steps, and a practice area page addressing the needs of people who are ready to begin the process. As long as each page provides unique value and isn’t competing with the others for the same search intent, keyword cannibalization shouldn’t be an issue.

How Can I Tell if My Site is Guilty of Keyword Cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization isn’t usually readily apparent just from looking at a website, notes Paige Silver, Online Marketing Manager at The Modern Firm. But there may be signs. For instance, a drop in organic traffic could be a sign of cannibalization. Another red flag is a page that used to rank highly for a keyword but has suddenly plummeted in the rankings. 

There are also many ways to search for keyword cannibalization on your website. A manual audit of your website’s pages and the keywords they target is one, though admittedly it’s time-consuming. Slightly less laborious is a site-specific Google search. You can do this by typing your target keyword along with your website’s name or URL in the search box. If more than one of your site’s pages appears in the results for that search, both pages might be competing for the same keyword. 

Another option is to generate a performance report through Google Search Console; you can analyze this report to spot keywords that multiple pages on your site are trying to target. You will want to establish the higher-performing page as the primary page for that keyword on your site.

Google is far from the only game in town. There are also SEO tools, such as Semrush, which have features designed to spot keyword cannibalization. You can use these tools to perform a site audit or run a keyword report, then look over the report. Two (or more) pages with low rankings for the same keyword are like those runners trying to elbow each other out of the way in a race; you want to give your strongest contestant a path to make a breakthrough and surge ahead—more on how to do that in a moment. 

If you lack the time, tech savvy, or simply the inclination to root out keyword cannibalization on your own, The Modern Firm can take care of it for you. Our Online Marketing Managers (OMMs) can perform quarterly content audits, devoting more time and attention than most busy attorneys have for this task—and we’re up to date on best practices for how to avoid keyword cannibalization, as well as fixing existing problems. Preventing this issue isn’t a “one and done;” you need regular audits to spot potential trouble. 

How to Avoid Keyword Cannibalization

To bring back the analogy of competing runners that we started this blog post with, there are a number of steps that you (or your marketing agency) can take to prevent keyword cannibalization. 

Research Keywords Before You Write

“Content is king,” says Paige Silver, and having high quality content on your site, as we noted above, makes both search engines and website visitors happy. But it’s not enough. You also need to perform in-depth keyword research before generating new content, so you can be sure you’re targeting the best keywords for your needs, and not duplicating keywords other pages on your site are targeting. 

At The Modern Firm, our OMMs do this keyword research for you, and equip our attorney writers with the keywords before they craft a blog post or evergreen website content.

Take a Different Angle

If you have a blog on your website, you need to update it regularly, which means that over time, you’ll have dozens, even hundreds of blog posts. Invariably, the same topics are going to come up again. If you’re a personal injury lawyer, you’re going to have multiple blog posts on car accidents. But you can approach them differently. For example you could have different blog posts such as “A Step-by-Step Guide to filing a Car Accident Claim;” “Five Steps to Take After a Car Accident,” and “How to Avoid Being in a Car Accident.”

The Modern Firm’s OMMs keep track of our clients’ blog topics, so we can always identify a fresh angle to a common topic. 

Strengthen Your Best Performing Page

If you have multiple pages targeting the same keyword, your analytics will indicate which is the strongest, with the best performance and the highest rank. Designate that as your most authoritative page. What do you do with the competing content?

You have options. Paige Silver advises, “You could consolidate the content from two different pages into a ‘mega-page,’ delete the weaker performing page, and set up redirects from the deleted page to the consolidated page.” Setting up redirects is critical to avoid the dreaded 404 error that will send readers fleeing back to the SERP in search of better results. 

Another option is to keep the two separate pages, but to re-optimize the weaker performer for different keywords. In our footrace analogy, that would be the equivalent of taking a runner out of one event and having them compete in another. 

Think Links

Internal linking is a powerful SEO strategy—if you use it right. Not only does it make it easier for readers to find information they value, encouraging them to spend longer on your site, it can help you avoid keyword cannibalization. Ideally, you would link from less authoritative pages (like blog posts) to more authoritative pages (like practice area pages). Doing this consistently provided a clear signal to search engines as to which page on your site should rank higher. 

Use Canonical Tags

A canonical tag is a piece of HTML code on a webpage that serves as a sort of “road map” for search engines, to show which is the preferred or most authoritative version of a page.

Get Help Keeping the (Keyword) Cannibals at Bay

To learn more about keyword cannibalization and content cannibalization (or to get help so you don’t need to learn more), contact The Modern Firm. Our OMMs can help ensure that your pages stay in their lanes—and get your marketing efforts over the finish line.