SERP cannibalization
-
Hi Moz Community,
Recently I've been seeing multiple pages from my eCommerce site pop up in the SERPS for a couple of queries. Usually I would count this as a good thing but since both pages that generally pop up are so similar I'm starting to wonder if we would rank better with just one page.
My example is the query "birthday gifts" Both of the URL's below show up in the search results one after the other on the first page. The URL on the top is our family page and the one below it is our subcat page, you can find both in the top nav. of our site.
www.uncommongoods.com/gifts/birthday-gifts/birthday-gifts (family)
www.uncommongoods.com/gifts/birthday-gifts (subcat)
Both of these pages have different PA's and the subcat page that currently lives in our site nav is actually: **www.uncommongoods.com/gifts/birthday-**gifts?view=all. ****This url doesn't show up in the serps and is rel=canonicaled to the subcat page without the parameter listed above. We use this page in the nav because we think it's a better user experience than the actual subcat page.
If we were to condense all three pages into one would we rank higher?
Any thoughts here would be appreciated.
Thanks
-
Zack,
A change like this on a money term ranking page is always going to incur some risk. But here's what I think after your update.
/gifts/birthday-gifts ---> Better user engagement metrics, higher Page Authority, closer to the root.This curated landing page is best for a user who doesn't know which gift to buy, or even which type, but knows who they are buying it for a her or a him. I would say this describes an good (though it could be better) experience for someone searching for a short-tail, generic phrase like "Birthday Gifts" on Google.
/gifts/birthday-gifts/birthday-gifts
This landing page is more like a typical category page with filters and facets to narrow down the search by gender, price and other features.They aren't the same page right now so I wouldn't use the Rel Canonical tag as a way to consolidate them. The View All category page is good for crawling, but the Curated Landing Page is better for users.
I would come up with a layout that combines the best of both pages and test that option against a percentage of the traffic to the /gifts/birthday-gifts. Basically create a B version of that page, which includes the filtering options available on the category page. These options can affect what shows up in the first carousel for "all birthday gifts" while the curated sections remain on the page for easy self-select (i.e. For Him / For Her).
Assuming that page converts at least as well as the existing A version, I would give serious thought to combining these two pages to see if you can get your highest performing landing page into the #1 spot. Given the relatively lower authority of the existing #1 spot, I think this is definitely doable.
You do risk losing some traffic that would have been more inclined to click on your listing after seeing more than one in the SERPs, but you can offset that with PPC, as you're doing now.
Collect your baselines first. Combine the totals from both pages to see if the consolidation results in more sales.
-
Hi Everett,
Thanks for your response here, I've looked at both pages and our /gifts/birthday-gifts page has way more impressions, higher CTR and higher conversion than our /gifts/birthday-gifts/birthday-gifts version of the page.
So would you still recommend not changing anything or consolidating both pages?
Thanks!
-
If we were to condense all three pages into one would we rank higher?
I would count these as two pages because one points to another with canonical. My first effort would be to improve both of these pages.
I see these pages as #2 and #3 in the organic competition. That is awesome, just absolutely awesome. Nice work!
If you think that your merchandise is distinctly different from the site above you or if you have better prices or better shipping or anykind of a competitive advantage, then I would think twice about sacrificing a page. Instead I would work to improve both pages, making them extremely unique, extremely sticky, extremely clickable in the SERPs, highly optimized for the visitor and highly optimized for the query. I would want to defeat the site above me, hold the competition down at #4 and work to double my money from current traffic. In my opinion and experience, being at #2 and #3 with real potential to move up and improve is more valuable than risking #3 to try to get #1.
I would try to beat them straight out rather than sacrifice a good page and a SERP position for the hope of moving up.
The only time that I would not say that is if the #1 site is clearly superior in every way... visitor experience, prices, value propositions, ranking strength, clickability and more. Amazon above me is an example... but with your competitor, I would mount the attack.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Rich snippets not appearing in SERP
We implemented rich snippets for People listings about 2 months ago, and they haven't shown up in SERPs yet. I followed all of the advice listed here, and everything seems to be working and being crawled correctly. I'm not sure what else to try at this point. Here is an example page that should be showing snippets: http://www.travelleaders.com/travel_agent/Agent-Details.aspx?id=6982 Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | john_marketade0 -
Possible for SERP appearance to change on a keyword?
Hi, We're currently working with a brand name which happens to be the name of a small town in the US (126 population). When Googling the brand / town name, there's a map on the right-hand side of the SERP. (Google Maps, with the town highlighted) We're based in Sweden, and this is even showing up on a search on the Swedish Google. I'm wondering; Is it possible for the map to "be removed" as our brand becomes more known? Does anyone have any similar experiences? Is it a better idea to just switch brand name?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JSTRANDELL0 -
Weirdist Meta Description I've Seen in a SERP
For one e-commerce website, in place of the proper meta description, Google is showing a 318-character-long mix of snippets from the homepage content for the domain search (e.g. [example.com]). A brand search returns the correct meta description - as do the keywords the homepage ranks for. I know Google changes the meta description if it doesn't think it's relevant, but this one (there is only one) is and has (as far as we know) shown until now, and I've never seen such a mix of text in the SERP, and so many characters - it's picking up random text from bits of anchor text e.g. "privacy policy", title attributes from links, labels from radio buttons and more. The home page W3C validates apart from a couple of basic things like missing alt text. The only things that might be related that don't are some custom meta name tags added by the CMS - but I wouldn't think this would make any difference to whether a meta description is displayed properly or not? I've recommended we wait until tomorrow to see if Google fixes this on recrawl, but does anyone have any ideas if it doesn't? The homepage doesn't feature much standalone text, so I was thinking if we add a few extra words it might encourage Google to pick from that if it doesn't want to use the meta description. The text would have to be useful for users and fit in with the design of course, which could be awkward...
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Alex-Harford1 -
Is it possible to get job pages in the SERPs to compete against the likes on Monster and Indeed?
Is it possible to get job pages in the SERPs to compete against the likes on Monster and Indeed? I'm looking to build specific pages for jobs that are posted on our website, but I feel it's a tough challenge for any site to compete? Are there better options?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Hughescov0 -
Best practice to avoid cannibalization of internal pages
Hi everyone, I need help from the best SEO guys regarding a common issue : the cannibalization of internal pages between each other. Here is the case : Let's say I run the website CasualGames.com. This website provides free games, as well as articles and general presentation about given categories of Casual Games. For instance, for the category "Sudoku Games", the structure will be : Home page of the game : http://www.casualgames.com/sudoku/ Free sudoku game listings : (around 100 games listed) http://www.casualgames.com/sudoku/free/ A particular sudoku game : http://www.casualgames.com/sudoku/free/game-1/ A news regarding sudoku games : http://www.casualgames.com/sudoku/news/title The problem is that these pages seem to "cannibalize" each other. Explanation : In the SERPS, for the keyword "Casual Games", the home page doesn't appear well ranked and some specific sudoku games page (one of the 100 games) are better ranked although they are "sub-pages" of the category.. Same for the news pages : a few are better ranked than the category page.. I am kind of lost.. Any idea what would be the best practice in this situation? THANKS a LOT.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | laboiteac
Guillaume0 -
Old URL showing up in SERPs 4 months after Re-direct
Hi guys, I did a full site redirect back in October to a new URL, SERPS eventually changed to the new URL and everything was fine. However recently i have started to see the old URL showing up? Anyone else seeing this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Martin_Harris0 -
Sitelinks (breadcrumbs) in SERPs
Hi there, I have a .co.uk & .ie website both have the exact same content, only differences is the UK website is selling the product in pounds and the Irish website is selling in Euros plus both websites have different contact numbers. I decided to use rel canonical on the .ie pointing to the .co.uk website as I think it was having an issue in my SERPs for the .co.uk website in Google.co.uk, anyway since doing this, I am seeing strange things happening in SERPs for my keywords, for example if you click the link below, my website is number 2 for 'hot flushes' if you hover over or click on 'health or 'menopause' in the breadcrumbs in SERPs it takes you to the .co.uk website, is this normal? Click here
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Paul780 -
Every seen any SERP like this?
I've never seen a SERP like this, has anyone else? Image no longer available
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ATShock1