Let’s be honest:
As SEO terms go, keyword cannibalisation sounds cool.
But it’s not cool. It’s a bit annoying.
This article will walk you through what it is, but more importantly, how to find them quickly using raw meat to lure them spreadsheets.
How to find keyword cannibalisation
Let’s start de-cannibalising.
What is keyword cannibalisation?
Quick navigation
Keyword cannibalization is when two or more pages on the same website are ranking for the same keyword. The keywords are eating themselves.
Why is it bad?
Well for one, you are competing with yourself.
You are also making it difficult for Google to figure out which page to rank. Rankings may be lower than they should be. No one wants that.
How to find cannibalised keywords
Finding cannibals is tricky and dangerous and not at all recommended.
Thankfully, finding cannibalised keywords is easier.
Before you go making a copy of my template…
I’ve actually made three versions of the sheet. You heard me, four. I did consider rolling them into one big sheet, but individual sheets seemed to be more user friendly. Also the sheets run faster.
Pick whichever tool you have access to and make a copy:.
Once you’ve done that, you can now pick how you’ll proceed. Think of this as a choose your own adventure story. Only with more keywords.
All the sheets work in the same way once you’ve dropped your data in there.
Getting your data is the only thing that’s different. Let’s run through how you get the data from each tool.
AHREFS
Go to Site Explorer and run your domain through it. Go to Organic keywords on the left hand menu.
Now click Export in the top right. Pick Full export and then Start export:
Open up this export and copy all the data. Now all you need to do is go to your copy of the finder sheet and paste in your data.
Make sure to paste them into the Export here tab in Cell A1
Head over to the RESULTS tab to see all your cannibalised keywords.
SEMRUSH
Go to SEMrush and add in your domain URL and hit search. On the overview page, scroll to the Top Organic Keywords section and ‘view full report:
Now you just want to go export your keywords as .csv:
Open up this export and copy all the data Now all you need to do is go to your copy of the finder sheet and paste in your data.
Make sure to paste them into the Export here tab in Cell A1
Head over to the RESULTS tab to see all your cannibalised keywords.
SERPSTAT
Run your site through Serpstat, and then under SEO Research, go to Positions:
Now in the top right, hit Export. Pick your Export all data and then you file format (CSV):
Open up this export and copy all the data Now all you need to do is go to your copy of the finder sheet and paste in your data.
Make sure to paste them into the Export here tab in Cell A1
Head over to the RESULTS tab to see all your cannibalised keywords.
How to use the tool
Using data from the above tools, the finder tool will find you keyword cannibalisations quickly.
The RESULTS tab will show you 4 bits of data:
- Keyword – The main bit to focus on. These are the keywords that you are cannibalizing. Analyse them against their respective URLS and see if you can consolidate them into one URL.
- Search Volume – Seeing how many searches a keyword gets help you to prioritize which to tackle first.
- Position – Not sure this one really needs an explanation.
- URL – Again, fairly self explanatory.
What now?
So now you’ve got a list of cannibalised keywords. Now what?
Well you’ve got a couple of options.
You could find the best page ranking for a keyword and then merge it with any unique pieces content from the lower performing pages. (Don’t forget to 301 redirect the pages you are killing.)
Or if the pages a very similar you could just consider removing it altogether.
Side note: One of the best ways to avoid keyword cannibalisation is to check the keywords you are rankings for before creating new content.
site:domain “KW”
This search operator will show you keywords + pages you are ranking for already. Then you’ll be able to determine if it makes sense to create and target this keyword or not.