Avoid Keyword Self-Cannibalization
-
<dl>
<dt>Cannibalizing link</dt>
<dd>Several links...
</dd><dt>Explanation</dt>
<dd>It's a best practice in SEO to target each keyword with a single page on your site (sometimes two if you've already achieved high rankings and are seeking a second, indented listing). To prevent engines from potentially seeing a signal that this page is not the intended ranking target and creating additional competition for your page, we suggest staying away from linking internally to another page with the target keyword(s) as the exact anchor text. Note that using modified versions is sometimes fine (for example, if this page targeted the word 'elephants', using 'baby elephants' in anchor text would be just fine).</dd>
<dt>Recommendation</dt>
<dd>Unless there is intent to rank multiple pages for the target keyword, it may be wise to modify the anchor text of this link so it is not an exact match.</dd>
<dd>How do I fix this?
</dd></dl>
-
I'm wondering if SEOmoz is overreacting to some of my link text, or if I should alter the text?
When you are targeting long tail key phrases, your main phrase is likely to be part of many longtail phrases. In my case the homepage targets 'company formations' and the link that's been flagged in the On-Page Report is "Prices for Irish Limited Company Formation" which isn't that close of a match.
It's a link in my main navigation, so whatever I change it to chances are the wording will be similar to key phrases I am targeting on other pages. Also, making sure the link text makes most sense to users is a priority!
Thanks Martin, your reponses have clarified this a bit.
-
Well, no, because the assumption is that a page won't be linking to itself (except maybe in a navigation system) so your links should be going to other pages anyway.
Just bear in mind that cannibalization doesn't just apply to internal links (though that's how it often happens). You also don't want to be linking to outside resources with your own target keywords.
But yes, it's the anchor text that needs changing.
-
So the links going to another page on my site (Another post in this case), just change the anchor text of 'purple elephant's'? to maybe 'elephants' or 'great elephants' and then when you click the link, it actually then brings you to 'purple elephants'?
Hope this has helped me!
-
How your internal links (links on your website's pages to other pages on your website) are worded makes a difference to how effective the keyword targeting of a page is.
So if I have a page selling 'Purple Elephants' there should not be links to other pages with the text 'purple elephants'. On the flip side, on other pages, links to this product should contain 'purple elephants'.
So you fix it by looking at your page which should focus on purple elephants and finding links to other pages containing this phrase and changing the wording.
Remember what it says above that 'partial matches' may not have such a negative effect so purple ride-on elephants would still probably be okay. What you want to ensure that the links going out from that page are not precisely the keyword you're targeting. (i.e. exact-match).
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
-
Ranking keywords
Is there a way to utilize our currently ranking keywords. I don't think editing the url would be a good idea. What areas of these pages should we improve? Or is it better not to do anything.
On-Page Optimization | | Timberwink0 -
Moz is advising that a page has too many of the same keywords.
But this sub-category page includes products that have the keyword in the product name. Should I be concerned?
On-Page Optimization | | Tacony_Corporation0 -
Simple on-site SEO - bet practice for keywords in content
Hello, The Moz on-page grader will give a grade of A if the keyword appears exactly in the content at least one time. If there are 500 words and a lot of it is about the main keyword, what have you found to be important to look for beyond the on-page grader - beyond the one exact instance of the keyword? I'm specifically talking just about keywords in the content. My guess is that it needs to occur 3 or 4 times in different forms and at least once exactly, but the on-page grader doesn't require it. What have you found?
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Should you use Plural version of a keyword or singular
H If kw research shows that singular version of a keyword has higher search volume than plural version should you still use plural version in main on-page areas to try and catch both instances or focus on the singular ? cheers dan
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Is thumbnail text crawlable/lists of product names considered as normal copy in terms of keywords?
On a page that lists products (thumbnail text repeating the same word when you sell variations of the same thing) and also has copy at the bottom, are the product names crawlable? Is it better to avoid repeating the keyword in the copy? Can you get penalised for it?
On-Page Optimization | | LawrenceNeal0 -
How does a keyword get crawled and pointed at a certain page
I was wondering if you can give me some insight on how a keyword that I put on my campaign gets linked to a specific URL on my website by SEOMoz or Google. For example: updating a brick fireplace is my keyword. On the campaign when I am looking at my on page optimization, the URL assigned (or given) to it is my homepage. How is this determined and is there a way around it and or directing it to the correct page? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | SammyT0 -
WordPress - optimizing for new keywords on page or post?
I know WordPress is always a little messy with SEO but i have a main question regarding WordPress optimisation for a special keyword. Let's say i have a chocolade blog and have written about all the vendors of chocolade. Now i found a new keyword which i want to optimize my website for. Should i create a 'Page' within WordPress and optimize it for the new keyword + link to some of the post about a relative keyword within this page?
On-Page Optimization | | Amosnet
OR Should i create a blog post and write about the new keyword and just links some of the other relative blog posts? I hope my question is clear.0 -
Self-Cannibalization issue
Is the keyword "filme online gratis" self-cannibalization on this site filmeonlinenoi.com in the seomoz tool "On-Page Keyword Optimization" it shows that it is a self-cannibalization keyword ... i made some changes (big changes) and its still remaining the same
On-Page Optimization | | Alexsmenaru0