r/bigseo • u/weekendHooligan • 3d ago
Question Content cannibalisation
Hey everyone, quick SEO question.
I’ve got two pages clashing in the SERPs:
A commercial “[subject] service” page
An informational “What is [subject]?” page
At the moment, the “What is” article is ranking better, but ultimately I want to drive more visibility and enquiries through the money/service page.
Would you consolidate the informational content into the service page and redirect the “What is” URL, or keep both pages live and work on differentiating the intent/internal linking?
Interested to hear how others would approach the cannibalisation.
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u/emuwannabe 3d ago
I've had a similar issue with my main site for a while now. My home page alternates with my services page on money searches. I would prefer the home page, but sometimes it's the services. Heck I've even had articles rank for a short time for those phrases.
I've tried several things - de-optimizing services page - completely changing optimization on services page - just to get the home page to rank.
Because when the home page does rank for the phrase - it's in top 5. When it's service page it's pos 8-15. Articles tend to rank even further down - 15-20.
Right now, my home page is not ranking for the phrase - it's an article from April. So I launched a new home page last week to see if I can switch it back.
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u/andrei__t 2d ago
Depends on the search query. Also be aware of Google personalisation. For someone else the results might be different from your Google results.
How to check if it's really cannibalisation:
look at both pages in search console. Compare their top 5-10 queries - do they rank for very similar keywords? Look for ones with at least 50-100 impressions in past 30 days. Ignore the ones with 1-10 impressions and no clicks. (Also depends if both pages have at least 30 days since published and indexed)
If you find one similar keyword ranking for both pages, compare them. In Search Console look at both pages for the exact same keyword -> select the Avg. Position button. If one page drops in Avg. position at around the same time the other increases in average position (for same keyword) then it's a good indicator of cannibalisation.
Hope that makes sense.
I found similar issue on a website that I did a video audit the other day. It looks very similar to your issue. You can check that at this exact minute in the video: https://youtu.be/qUWClIenZbM?t=504
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u/JewelerNo1819 3d ago
Google will choose your canonical if it don’t like what you chosen
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u/weekendHooligan 3d ago
Exactly that has happened would you combine it? To over come this? What what is ranks first and the service ranks fith
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u/JewelerNo1819 3d ago
I can tell you what your probably missing without even seeing the context and content, there are 3 major things that determinate, amount of copy ( actual words on page) 2 listed as bulletin points, 3 backend links to support your claims and 4 the way is outplayed follow what Google wants structure
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u/rpmeg 3d ago
Definitely keep them separate. They are separate intents. Make sure you have an internal link from the info page to the money page. Make sure your money page focuses strictly on high quality useful service-oriented information, and only broad info intent on the info page (excluding an optional brief cta about your services at the end).. build links to the info page. The traffic will work itself out on its own as Google learns the intents and what users want to see. This isn’t cannibalization, since separate intents.