How To Tackle Organic Keyword Cannibalisation [Updated for 2024]

A review of keyword cannibalisation, updated for 2024 following recent Google Updates

This talk was delivered at #seodaydk - https://seoday.dk/

In this talk i cover:

- What is keyword cannibalisation
- Is it a problem for your domain?
- How do you fix it, if it is?
- How this can help you take advantage of Core Updates, Helpful Content Updates and the Product Reviews System
- Case study, detailing how to resolve this for an e-commerce site

Any questions, just drop me a line at charlie@whitworthseo.com

Transcript

1. Are you competing with yourself? How to tackle keyword cannibalisation in 2024 Charlie Whitworth
2. whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024 A bit about me 12 years of SEO experience across four agencies covering a wide range of industries, platforms and campaign types Previously Head of SEO at Missguided Experienced SEO – run training days, white label for agencies and spoken at BrightonSEO, Barbados SEO, Digital Bites and SASCon…and now SEOday. Areas of expertise are technical SEO, content strategy, developer liaison, forecasting, reporting on ROI from the organic channel and training & mentorship Brands I’ve Worked With
3. My Grandad, Frank Minor Meet Frank Minor whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
4. For Frank, im not a United fan but huge Liverpool fan to this day I Kept My Word… whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
5. Current Football Feels whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
6. Prudent Strategy Essential Shit against the wall strategy just doesn’t work Buying the “best” players in the world doesn’t guarantee trophies whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
7. Same Is True of SEO, Especially in 2024 whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024 Link SPAM Content (CU, HCU, PRU) Over Optimisation Even Tech SEO: i.e. Crawl Bloat And even prior via Panda, Fred etc
8. How To Tackle Keyword Cannibalisation & Dominate the SERPs whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
9. 50 Major Changes To The Algo in the last 5 years (and thousands of smaller ones) 13 of these being Core Updates whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
10. CUs Reward Reliable People First Content whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
11. People First Key Not Just Due to AI whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024 • Spun Content • Duplicate Content • Content Farms • Syndicated Content Again, all points back to this theme of over optimization which tends to cause cannibalisation amongst other issues
12. So, What Even Is Keyword Cannibalisation? whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
13. Not To Be Confused with Paid vs Organic whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024 • If you’re lucky enough to rank in the top positions organically, cannibalization can occur with paid ads • This can be combatted through collaboration between paid and organic teams, and not bidding on terms you know you already have top spots for • But today, we’re talking about organic cannibalisation
14. Panda Created a Saturation of Content on the Web Before 2011, the SERPs were horrific Then came Panda, which was the precursor to Core Updates Spawned the term “content is king” whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
15. Obsession With Content Has Caused Over Optimisation whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
16. What Is Organic Keyword Cannibalisation? “Where URLs on the same (sub)domain compete for organic non brand rankings, confusing search engines and creating SERP flux. This dilutes the visibility and performance of all pages, hampering overall SEO performance” whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024 Source: Me ☺
17. Keyword Cannibalisation Is Inevitable whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
18. Search Intent Is Key • PLPs // Category • PDPs // Product • Blogs & Articles // Topical • Guides & Resources // Evergreen Ranking these various page types requires optimising for their specific search intent whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
19. Every Project Varies But Generally • PLPs (Product Landing Page) – Head/Medium Tail Terms • PDPs (Product Description Page) – Product/Long Tail/PRU • Blogs & Articles – Topical, PAA, Trends and Updates • Guides & Resources (Evergreen) – Higher Volume & Informational whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024 These acronyms tend to apply to e-commerce websites – but the same logic can be applied to category, sub-category and article templates
20. 3rd Party Tools Help But Aren’t The Oracle whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024 SERPs and Intent are ever changing, and tools are great at identifying this, but manual checks never go amiss
21. Why Should You Care About Keyword Cannibalisation? whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
22. Meet Dom, CEO off Off The Grain Humble Yorkshire Business Boomed in COVID Building Furniture Demand Then Lulled whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
23. Now Outranking Etsy, eBay & Wayfair!!!! (WTF) whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
24. SEO Visibility Being Rewarded By Various Updates Combination of Addressing Keyword Cannibalisation Optimising for Reviews System (PRU) Guidelines Pruning Dated and Low Engagement URLs whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
25. Recently, Core & Helpful Content Updates whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
26. Initially, Product Review Updates whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024 Not only a chance to resolve cannibalisation, but also optimize for reviews system criteria
27. Reviewing PLP & PDP for Cannibalisation Client Who Loves Writing Copy Sprinkling Keywords Over PDP but not PLP Caused Major Cannibalisation We Were Able To Resolve Cannibalisation, Optimise for PRU and Boost PLPs Simultaneously whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
28. Vanity Metrics Correlate With Non-Brand Traffic • Surge in organic non brand clicks has came during the quietest month of the year for the sector • Non brand clicks now at unprecedented levels whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
29. Crucially, Impact on Clicks & Revenue YoY Organic Revenue: 163% YoY Organic Sessions: 251% (5,610 vs 19,726) YoY Organic Clicks: 383% (2.8k vs 13.6k) whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
30. Achieved Without Active Link Acquisition whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
31. How Do You Resolve Keyword Cannibalisation? whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
32. The Juicy Bit whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
33. Site Search & SERP Analysis Site search is great, but has pitfalls For ease, use a plugin such as SEO Minion to download the SERPs and review manually whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
34. There Are Some Great Tools, But Use With Care Ahrefs Keyword Explorer allows you to quickly see SERP flux for a given term whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
35. The Data Nearly Always Needs Refining Sistrix has a built in “Show Keyword Cannibalisation” feature, but you’re at the mercy of their database, not your own Can be a good starter for ten whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
36. Daily Keyword History Establishes SERP Flux Caused by PLPs with sparse content and PDPs with greater keyword density whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
37. Help Google & Rankings to Settle whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
38. Go From This… whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
39. To This… whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
40. Establish If a Term Needs Its Own LP whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
41. Allows You To Cluster Based on the SERPs whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
42. And of course, Google Search Console whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
43. Keyword Cannibalisation Checklist whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
44. Summary Audit: Is keyword cannibalisationan issue for your site? Prune out any duplicate, similar, thin or low engagement URLs Cluster your keywords: merge and consolidate wherever possible based on search data, search intent and the SERPs Fill in your content gaps, not by creating URLS for every keyword but by optimising for clusters and entities*. Keep an eye on PDP vs PLP Don’t over optimise for money keywords, you don’t need 20 blogs on a topic whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
45. And remember…. whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024
46. Thanks! https://speakerdeck.com/whitworthseo/how-to- tackle-keyword-cannibalisation-and-dominate- the-serps https://www.whitworthseo.com/search- news/how-to-tackle-keyword-cannibalisation- dominate-the-serps whitworthseo.com // @whitworthseo // SEOday 2024 https://twitter.com/WhitworthSEO https://www.linkedin.com/in/seo- consultancy-manchester/ https://www.instagram.com/whitworthseo/