SEO Cannibalization in eCommerce

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a critical component of any successful eCommerce website. It helps drive organic traffic, improve visibility, and ultimately boost sales. However, one common issue that eCommerce businesses often face is SEO cannibalization – a situation where multiple pages on the same website compete for the same keyword or search query.

SEO cannibalization can have a significant impact on a website’s search engine rankings, user experience, and overall marketing efforts. Explore the concept of SEO cannibalization in the guide below. Learn some common causes of keyword cannibalization, and practical strategies to identify and address this challenge specifically for eCommerce websites.

What is Keyword Cannibalization in eCommerce?

SEO keyword cannibalization is a common issue for eCommerce sites. When multiple pages on the same site compete for the same search queries, it undermines their ability to rank highly. This occurs because eCommerce sites often have different types of content, such as category pages, product pages, and blog posts, that can target similar keywords.

The key reason to solve SEO cannibalization is that search engines generally want to display only the most relevant and authoritative page for a given search query. If multiple pages from the same site appear, it signals to the search engine that it’s unclear which page best satisfies the user’s intent. This can cause both pages to rank lower, reducing clicks, traffic, and potential conversions.

In contrast, if the search engine can clearly identify the single most relevant page, it is more likely to rank that page higher, driving more organic traffic and potential customers to that page. Resolving cannibalization helps search engines send users to the page on your site that best answers their query, maximizing the impact of your SEO efforts.

eCommerce websites are particularly prone to SEO cannibalization for a few key reasons:

• Extensive Product Catalogs: eCommerce sites typically have a large number of product pages, often with similar attributes, descriptions, and keywords. This creates many opportunities for pages to compete against each other. 
• Faceted Navigation: eCommerce sites use faceted navigation to allow users to filter and refine product searches. This can generate numerous URLs with similar content, leading to cannibalization. 
• URL Parameters: eCommerce sites often use URL parameters for tracking marketing campaigns, which search engines may index as separate pages. 

Types of eCommerce website content

eCommerce websites typically have several types of content that can be prone to keyword cannibalization:

• Product Pages: Detailed pages showcasing individual products, including descriptions, images, specifications, and pricing. These are the core conversion-focused pages and provide detailed product information to assist customers in making purchasing decisions.
• Category/Collection Pages: Pages that group related products together, allowing users to easily navigate and find the products they are looking for.
• Landing Pages: Pages designed to promote specific products, collections, or campaigns, often with the goal of driving conversions. 
• Blog/Content Pages: Informational pages that provide value to users and help with SEO, brand awareness, and customer education with the goal of establishing the website as an authoritative and trustworthy source of information

The risk of cannibalization arises when these different content types target similar keywords. For example, if the “laptops” category page and a blog post on “the best laptops” both try to rank for laptop-related queries, the search engine may be unsure which page is most relevant, causing both to rank lower.

While a blog can be a powerful tool to attract traffic, eCommerce sites must be very careful when creating blog content to avoid undermining the rankings of their core category and product pages. Maintaining a clear content strategy and hierarchy is crucial to prevent SEO cannibalization on an eCommerce website.

Developing Content (and Avoiding Cannibalization) for eCommerce

The key to creating content for your website is to take a holistic, user-focused approach rather than just optimizing for search engines. However, it’s important to approach content development strategically to avoid the pitfalls of SEO cannibalization.

Here are the key steps to developing SEO content strategically for an eCommerce website: 

1. Understand your target audiences & their buying cycles

• Conduct thorough market research to identify your core customer segments, their demographics, pain points, and typical buying behaviors.
• Map out the different stages of your customers’ purchase journeys, from initial awareness to post-purchase loyalty.
• Develop buyer personas that capture the unique needs and motivations of each target audience.
• Use this deep understanding of your customers to create content that resonates and provides value at every step of the way.

2. Audit your existing content

• Perform a comprehensive audit of all the content on your ecommerce website, including product pages, blog posts, category pages, and more.
• Identify any instances of potential SEO cannibalization, such as multiple pages targeting the same keywords or covering similar topics.
• Analyze the performance of each piece of content in terms of organic traffic, conversions, and search rankings.
• Determine which content is driving the most value and which may be redundant or underperforming.
• Consolidate or restructure content as needed to avoid competing with yourself in search results.

3. Create a comprehensive content strategy

• Develop a detailed content calendar that outlines the types of content you will create, the target audience, and the distribution channels.
• Ensure each piece of content has a clear, distinct purpose – whether it’s to educate, inspire, entertain, or drive conversions.
• Establish a logical, user-friendly URL structure that makes it easy for both customers and search engines to navigate your site.

4. Optimize content for SEO

• Conduct thorough keyword research to identify the most relevant, high-intent search terms for your products and services.
• Strategically incorporate these keywords into your content, metadata, and site architecture without over-optimizing.
• Focus on creating genuinely valuable, informative content that provides a great user experience.

5. Track performance & continuously optimize

• Regularly review key metrics like organic traffic, conversion rates, and search rankings to identify your top-performing content.
• Analyze user behavior data to understand how customers are engaging with your content and where they’re dropping off.
• Use these insights to refine your content strategy, double down on successful topics, and retire underperforming content.
• Continuously test and iterate to ensure your ecommerce content remains relevant, engaging, and effective.

Detecting SEO Cannibalization (When it Already Exists)

To detect existing SEO cannibalization on your eCommerce site:

• Conduct a Content Audit: Review your website’s content and identify pages that target the same keywords or have overlapping content. 
• Use Keyword Tracking Tools: Tools like Google Search Console, SEMrush, or Ahrefs can help you identify keywords that are being targeted by multiple pages on your site. 
• Analyze Internal Linking: Review your internal linking structure to see if you are inadvertently passing link equity to multiple pages targeting the same keywords. 
• Monitor Search Rankings: Keep an eye on your search engine rankings and note if multiple pages from your site are appearing for the same keyword queries. 

How to Solve SEO Cannibalization – Examples

Fixing SEO cannibalization depends on the specific URLs involved and your business priorities. 

The key is to clearly identify the “primary” URL you want to keep ranking and the “secondary” URL you want to remove from search results.

Here are some common examples of SEO cannibalization that can happen to eCommerce websites: 

There is No Traffic to the Secondary URL, No Need to Keep It

If the secondary URL has no organic traffic for other keywords and you don’t need to maintain it for business reasons, the solution is straightforward:

1. Integrate Relevant Content: Integrate the relevant content from the secondary URL into the primary URL in a natural way to enrich the content.
2. Redirect: Redirect the secondary, less relevant page to the primary page using a 301 redirect.
3. Update Links: Update any links pointing to the secondary URL to go to the primary instead.

Need to Keep the Secondary URL, It Has Other Traffic

If you need to keep the secondary URL, but it’s driving traffic for other keywords:

1. Move Content: Take any content directly related to the cannibalized primary keyword and move it to the primary URL.
2. Remove Target Keyword: Remove the target keyword as much as possible from important page elements on the secondary URL (title, headings, etc.).
3. Optimize: Optimize the secondary page for the secondary keyword.
4. Redirect Links: Find links pointing to the secondary URL and redirect them to the primary URL where feasible, without altering the meaning.

Need to Keep the Secondary URL, but It Has No Other Traffic

If you must keep the secondary URL but it has no organic traffic for other terms:

1. Use Canonical Tags: Use canonical tags to indicate the preferred version of the page to search engines.
2. Noindex: Consider noindexing the secondary page to prevent it from being crawled and indexed.

Gretchen Oestreicher , 19 July 2024