Welcome to The Dish, Practice Cafe’s Newsletter!
This is The Dish, your weekly digest providing actionable insights on how to maximize your dental marketing dollars. Each week, we’ll be sending out short and sweet treats to help you navigate the obstacles our clients are facing in real-time.
Keyword Cannibalization
Do you have a keyword that’s stuck in neutral and can’t seem to break through to number one? You might have a keyword cannibal on the loose.
What is Keyword Cannibalization?
“Keyword cannibalization is an SEO issue that happens when multiple pages on a website target the same or similar keywords. This leads to a situation where the site’s pages compete against each other for search engine rankings. This can dilute the website’s ability to rank effectively for targeted keywords.”
– Josh Hardwick, Head of Content @ Ahrefs
How Do We Combat Keyword Cannibalization?
Let’s look at a real-world example. One of our clients held a steady ranking for “dentist near me” that ranged between 2nd and 5th. After doing a content audit, we discovered every page on the website contained the term “dentist”. As a result, nearly every page on the website was competing against itself for that term.
After scrubbing “dentist” from every page except for the home page, the client’s “dentist near me” ranking surged to #1. Moral of the story: fight the urge to stuff strategic keywords on every page of your site just for the sake of trying to rank higher.
Here Are Two Things You Can Do to Combat Keyword Cannibalization:
1. Focus: Keep a narrow keyword focus for each page. Don’t try to be everything to everyone on every page. Have a plan for each page and be thoughtful with your content strategy.
2. Consolidate: When you discover potential keyword cannibalization, consider consolidating. You might come across multiple pages or blog posts that cover the same topic. Try consolidating those pages into one and review the targeted keyword rankings the following month.
Need More Help?
Let us do a free content audit and tell you if your website has keyword cannibals. Let us know how it goes!
Schedule My Audit
