Limor Barenholtz Presentation BrightonSEO

1. Don’t Be A Cannibal
Limor Barenholtz | Similarweb
SLIDESHARE.NET/LIMORBARENHOLTZ1
@LEM4

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Don't be a cannibal
Identifying and avoiding keyword cannibalization

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Keyword
Cannibalization
What is it?
Why is it bad?
Where can I find it?
How can I fix it?
How can I prevent it?
How does it look?

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What is keyword
cannibalization?

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Keyword cannibalization is the common
term used for when several different
pages on the same site contain the
same or similar keywords.

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Why is keyword
cannibalization bad?

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Unclear keyword targeting can bite
Keywords Rankings Traffic

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The result?
Both Google and users may choose the
wrong path…

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Clarity is key.
If users become unclear about your
website content or various products,
you may lose traffic on a long term
basis due to loss of trust.

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With PPC, it can be
money down the drain.

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When the conflict occurs with your
PPC activity, you can find yourself both
losing traffic to your optimized page,
and paying for clicks on your ad.

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Cannibalization hurts your website’s:
Authority
Ranking
Performance
Conversion

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Common Types of Keyword
Cannibalization

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Several Pages with the
same target keywords
1

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https://www.bodybuilding.com
https://www.bodybuilding.com

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Paid activity vs. organic
results cannibalization
2

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Paid
Paid
Organic
Organic

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UGC
3

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“Keyword research tool” in forum results

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Automated/Data-Driven Content
4

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Dynamic parameters can hurt content flexibility

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How To Identify Cannibalization

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Monitor your ranking performance
Are your target phrases fluctuating in
SERP? You might be a cannibal.
1

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Analyze rank fluctuations in
target phrases
2

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Check GSC - How many pages
rank for the exact term?
More than one?
3

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1 Exact Query -
5 Pages -
1 Year
C

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Use site: search + “target phrase”
4

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Site: moz.com "duplicate content"
* To avoid result
grouping you can add
“&filter=0” to the SERP
URL

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Keep a detailed map of URLs-to-keywords
5

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Organized mapping will help you identify
keyword overlaps quickly

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Monitor organic traffic share
6

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Identify traffic share changes over time

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Drill down on paid vs. organic keyword share

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Finalize with organic CTR data from GSC.
Has it dropped in correlating with your PPC
campaigns?

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How can I fix keyword
cannibalization?

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Build a detailed SEO map
1

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Isolate duplications in your SEO map
2

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Adjust SEO map so every URL has unique
matched phrases
3

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Use a keyword generator to
find relevant terms

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Roll out onto your conflicting pages
4

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One clear and authoritative
page can rank much higher
than two split-signal
results.

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Align internal linking
structure in your site
5

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Yes, it’s important enough to
have its own bullet.
YES
NO

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Align outreach
activities to the
new map
6

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Align paid activities with organic efforts.
Set rules and guidelines.
Always keep testing joined CTR.
7

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This all works for data-driven content
as well. Changing one faulty template
can fix a large volume of pages causing
conflicts.

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How can I avoid keyword
cannibalization

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Format your SEO Map to show duplicates
1

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That’s 80% of the work, right there.
Click to D/L SEO Map

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Focus on topic clusters
before keywords
2

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Clusters help create order

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Regularly audit your content
3

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Regularly audit your rankings
4

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Set strict UGC policies, or block to avoid
5

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rel=”ugc”
UGC stands for User
Generated Content, and the
ugc attribute value is
recommended for links within
user generated content, such
as comments forum posts.
rel=”nofollow”
Use this attribute to tag
outgoing links in UGC areas
to avoid linking conflicts &
Spam
rel=”sponsored”
Use the sponsored attribute to
identify links on your site that
were created as part of
advertisements, sponsorships
or other comprehension
agreements

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<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" />
Use the meta robots tag to avoid indexing of UGC
pages entirely. This solution will prevent the need to
manage the area.

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What did we learn today?
Identifying cannibalized terms
How to fix and avoid cannibalization
The meaning of cannibalization
How to analyze cannibalization
factors

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What can we do tomorrow?
Align our SEO mapping
Set rules & formats for the future
Audit our content performance
Fix cannibalization issues

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I’m Limor Barenholtz
Director of SEO @ Similarweb
Have been doing SEO for 20 years
Mom + 2
Former Athlete
Former Gamer
Former Hacker
Carnivor, not Cannibal
@Lem4

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Thank You.

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Question/comments?