[FAQ]

I’ve been blogging for a while now, and I just learned about “keyword cannibalization”. I think I might have done this to my own website. I write about similar topics often, so I probably have a few articles that are trying to rank for the same keyword.

My traffic has been stagnant for some time, and now I’m thinking this is the reason why. It’s a bit confusing, to be honest. How do I even start to fix this kind of problem? Do I have to delete my old posts?

[Jeff Bullas]

That’s a sharp observation; spotting this issue is the first step to fixing it.

Short Answer: You solve keyword cannibalisation by either merging the competing text content into one authoritative page or by re-optimising the weaker pages to target different, more specific keywords.

Essentially, you need to send a clear signal to search engines about which single page is the most important for that main topic.

Your instinct is right, and there are a few ways to sort this out without losing the value of your existing content.

The first and often best strategy is to merge the weaker text into a single, comprehensive article; create one definitive pillar page that covers the topic better than any of the individual posts did, and then properly redirect the old URLs to this new one.

A second approach, for pages that are distinct enough to keep, is to re-optimise the content by shifting its focus; you can edit the page titles, headers, and body text of the less important pages to target more specific, long-tail variations of the keyword.

Finally, regardless of which path you take, you should review your internal linking structure to ensure that your other site content links to your newly established main page for that topic, further reinforcing its authority. You asked about deleting posts, which is the one thing you should not do, as you would lose any authority those pages have built up and create broken links.

Cheers,
Jeff

• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Neil Anthony.
• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Neil Anthony.

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