Cannibal Content#CannibalContent #BrightonSEO
Chris Green SEO & Content Manager
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
I want you to take away three things
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
1) To be aware of the cannibals
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
2) The tools to fight cannibalisation with
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
3) To spur you on to do something about it
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What is cannibal content?
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Content that eats itself
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Like this...?
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
No
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It is web pages that compete with each
other in search
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Or...
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Sites (web properties) that you own that
overlap
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This can be very bad news...
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Most often it is pages which are similar/ same
as other pages
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Isn't this duplicate content?
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Yes and No
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Cannibalisation can be caused by duplication...
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… but you can have cannibalisation without
duplicate content
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
The key to understanding it,
is to identify it
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Which means tools
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Rank Tracking
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Track the URLs ranking for specific key terms
over time
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Google Analytics
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Check ranking shifts against organic landing
page traffic
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Search Console(Google Webmaster Tools)
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Use search analytics reports for ranked
pages insights
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
So you think you have a cannibal content
problem?
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Time to identify the cause(more tools!)
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Screaming Frog*
*other site auditing tools are available
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Full site audit -introduce Google Analytics data too
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Majestic*
*you get the idea...
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Backlink audit - which are your most linked to
pages?
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Social Crawlytics
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Do the same as backlinks,
but with social signals
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
All these will help you understand your website,
what ranks & why
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Or find a tool that does all this for you
(Ask Jon)
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Once you're armed and ready, time to fight back
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Canonical tags
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Internal linking
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Content
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Off-page Signals
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Lets put it all together!
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Step 1 : Rank tracking
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@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Imagine this...
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I have two pages ranking for the same term over
the last week...
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… but overall we're losing ground!
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Step 2: Site Audit
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@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
What are your pages targeting?
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Think Urls, Titles, <H1>s etc
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Then look at external signals
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Reflection - what are you dealing with?
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Do either of these sound familiar?
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
My less important page has more internal links
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
My less important page has more inbound links &
social shares
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@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Step 3: Fixing it
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@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Change keyword targeting
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Change site structure
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Add canonical tags(or other duplication
control)
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Change (or even add) internal links
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Give your preferred page more marketing love
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Step 4: Track & Refine
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Do more of what works, less of what doesn't
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
But!
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Prevention is MUCH better than a cure!
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Linking signals are hard to change
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Sister sites/brands don't just go away over
night!
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Re-structuring sites can be a nightmare!
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Do it right first time!
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Thorough keyword research
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Classify terms (primary, secondary &
long-tail)
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Assign them to your site map
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(Build it in Excel or Google Docs)
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
But remember:Logical keyword mapping!
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Now take a step back
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Look for potential overlaps
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
For Example:Sub-categories with
little difference
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This page?
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
WorkwearOnline
Shop by Product Shop by Sector
Construction Vests
Hi-Vis Hi-Vis
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Or maybe this page?
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
WorkwearOnline
Shop by Product Shop by Sector
Construction Vests
Hi-Vis Hi-Vis
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
For Example:B2B & B2C pages
targeting same terms
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This page?
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Animal Control
CommercialAnimal Control
DomesticAnimal Control
Animal Removal Animal Removal
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Or this page?
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Animal Control
CommercialAnimal Control
DomesticAnimal Control
Animal Removal Animal Removal
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Animal Control
CommercialAnimal Control
DomesticAnimal Control
Animal Removal Animal Removal
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
How do you avoid these?
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Restructure(Maybe there's a better
way of doing it)
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Content(Because content
differentiates!)
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Internal linking(Make it clear what your
important pages are)
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Canonical tags(Where the pages are needed for the user)
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
And Finally
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Put your effort behind those pages you want to
rank!
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
To wrap up
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Cannibal content can ruin your day
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Be watchful of it, and take a step back
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
There is a lot you can do to fix it
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
But doing so is often easier said than done!
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Prevention is alwaysbetter than a cure!
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
What are you waiting for?
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
Any Questions?
@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk
References:
AWR Cloud - www.awrcloud.comGoogle Analytics - ww.google.com/analytics/Google Search Console - www.google.com/webmasters/Screaming Frog - www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/Majestic - majestic.comSocial Crawlytyics - socialcrawlytics.comPi Datametrics - www.pi-datametrics.com
Get In touch:
[email protected]/chrisgreen87