Keywords are essential to optimize your blog posts for search engines. Everyone wants their post to be clicked on frequently and ranked high on Google and the like. However, this can be prevented by a phenomenon called keyword cannibalism.
How To Use Keywords Properly
Keywords are there to ensure that the page with which the keyword is optimized is displayed more frequently and higher up in the search results. This generates reach that can turn into sales in online shops or leads to subscriptions and a loyal readership on other websites.
Therefore, search engine optimization guarantees that your content does not sink into the vastness of the Internet like a stone in the sea. With the right keywords, you can also reach the previously selected target group to which the content and products are tailored.
Keyword Cannibalism: What Is It?
However, there is one common mistake that can come with keyword optimization: keyword cannibalism. The fundamental problem with this is that two pages on the same website “cannibalize” each other through their keywords so that ultimately neither of them gets a good ranking.
The problem usually arises from the fact that both pages have been optimized for the same keyword. The search engine is now confused – which page should it show the searcher? Since the search engine does not read the content, only scans it for keywords, it cannot make intelligent choices.
This Is How This Problem Can Be Solved
But as is well known, there is a solution for every problem and so for this one. The first step here is to determine which texts are affected and why the texts were optimized for the same keyword. An SEO specialist can help here. Indicators for keyword cannibalism are an alternating ranking for the same keyword with different URLs and a fluctuating SERP ranking. This is the position you take as a search result.
In the second step, you can make it easy for yourself if the two URLs are optimized for the same keyword and deal with the same topic. It makes sense to merge the two texts to create a single SEO -optimized and updated text.
It gets a bit more complex if you decide to keep both texts. This is the case, for example, if you have two good texts on different topics, one of which is incorrectly ranked for an unsuitable keyword. Here it is necessary to focus on another keyword that fits the text and has a high search volume.
If you want to keep both texts and not optimize the page for a new keyword, you have the option of not having the search engine check one of the URLs for keywords. However, if you only want to highlight one of the two pages, you can do that by filling one of the two URLs with more content or inserting a few links. The search engine now thinks that this page offers more added value and shows it to the searcher.
Also Read: What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) And Its Functions?