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
-
Anyone come accross a completely random site name displayed in the SERPs?
Hello SEO friends, I am looking at a site that has a completely random site name displayed in the serps. The site in question is a hypnotherapy service and the site name is displaying as a commercial cargo airline! See the screen shot. Any ideas? There is 'local business' structured data on the site and it IS showing the correct business name. Is this a hack? Negative SEO attack? Random Google stuff up? Help! Very confused! Thank you for any advice! Sean!Untitled.jpg
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sean.e0 -
What is this on SERP results?
Hi Guys, Does anyone know what this is called: https://d.pr/i/RA6RsG And how Google pulls it from a page? Do you need some kind of markup? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nattyhall0 -
4 ads on SERP
As you know google preview 4 ads on mobile view, So I want to know How much is the CTR's PPC in mobile view? BYaRB
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Pintapin0 -
Does Google frown on using 3 different page titles with same content to secure the top 3 results in SERPs?
Is it frowned upon by Google to create 3 different pages with the sames content yet different titles to secure the top three results in SERPs? For example: Luxury Care Homes in Liverpool Care Homes in Liverpool Private Care Homes in Liverpool The page titles are different with slightly different meta data but the user content is exactly the same, would this be considered a cheeky win or negative to rankings?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TrustedCare.co.uk1 -
Google’s Hummingbird and Keyword Cannibalization
My client wants to have keywords added on every product with the product name , apparently some seo guru told him that hummingbird is all about key phrases and long tail keywords. As i know hummingbird lends to understand the intent and contextual meaning of the query. The issue is if I add the keywords on for e.g oak furniture on all of my product title,And we are using zen-cart platform and it will change the internal anchor text on the product listing page. It will cause a Cannibalization issue. Question1. I just need help to reply to client that adding keyword can cause detrimental to ranking. Question 2. If i am wrong then do we need to re optimise the site. I have read http://moz.com/blog/how-to-solve-keyword-cannibalization Many thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Adnan.Hassan.Khan0 -
Pages Titles in SERPs - Wordpress Site
In Google SERPs we have several websites (built in wordpress) who's pages are being displayed without using the page title - is this google ignoring the page title or is there a problem in our code - also if this is google is it still taking notice of the page title to determine what content is on the page?I have read several articles on this but wondered if someone can advise - I can provide the URL if required.Also I wanted to 100% that our robots.txt is behaving its self.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnW-UK0 -
Keyword Self-Cannibalization
Hi, Happy Friday! I was advised to look at the SEO strategy of a UK SEO company and copy a technique they used, however, I have doubts that this technique is any good. So mydomain.com targets My Domain For my main keyword phrase, I was told to place a link to a newly created inner page in my footer, targeting the main keyword and on this page, create unique content which points back to my homepage. Now I also have mydomain.com/my-domain.php which has a link to mydomain.com with anchor text My Domain. Based on the SEOMoz reports, this now seems to be Keyword Self Cannibalisation and I think that it is diluting link juice and the value of my SEO on my homepage for this term rather than helping. Can you advise if this technique is wrong?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | tdsnet0 -
Rich Snippets Displayed in SERPs?
I've recently deployed rich snippets for a site that includes reviews on individual company profile pages. We passed the Rich Snippet Testing Tool and notified Google of our pages. It's been 2 months since we deployed this and still nothing. Does anyone have any feedback on the average time it takes Google to recognize these markup and include in on the SERPs? Or any articles that reference which industries they will include reviews in the SERPs for and which ones they won't? Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DustinSEO0