Boppe asked
Member (0 upvotes)

Can several informationpages compete with categorypages and hurt my ranking and cause keyword cannibalization?

I have a question regarding if several informationpages can hurt the ranking for more important pages like homepage and categorypages? Maybe causing keyword cannibalization?

I have a webshop. In my shop I have 2 main categories. Lets call them:
category-sofa
category-bed
There are also 3 subcategories:
category-sofa-small
category-sofa-medium
category-sofa-large
(they are actually not sofas or beds, just an example).

I also have 12 information-pages. 6 pages regarding sofas and 6 pages regarding beds. The information given in those information pages are useful for the customers.
They look something like this:
sofa-information-general
sofa-information-where to put your sofa
sofa-information-how to lie in in a sofa
sofa-information-how they are manufactured
sofa-information-how to take care of your sofa
sofa-information-guide to choose your sofa

Could it be that all these information-pages have a negative impact on the ranking for my homepage and my categorypages?
The information-pages contains many of the keywords like sofa/sofa-small/sofa-medium/sofa-large/beds etc. Can this lead to my homepage and categories gets less attention and drop in ranking because of keyword cannibalization?

I find it disturbing that for some search queries some of my information pages ranks better than my homepage and category pages. Because of this I feel that the information pages hurts my ranking for the "moneypages".

I won't skip all the information-pages as they are useful to my customers. Many visitors land on some of my information-pages as the first page they visit on my site. Some of them continue to my categorypages and make a purchase, but the majority just land on the informationpages, gets the information they need, and then leave the site.

Would it be better if I merge all my 6 sofa-informationpages on one single page? Would it be better in the aspect of avoid letting my information-pages compete with my homepage and categorypages?

If I merge the informationpages into one I'll have the 6 subjects shortly explained at the top with anchor links to the topic in question. Each topic separated with dividers. I think that won't look to messy even though it will be a long page.

The purpose of me merging these pages is to avoid having 6 informationpages for sofas and 6 informationpages for beds competing with the homepage and the categorypages. I also wants to minimize the risk of keyword cannibalization.

I don't mind if my informationpages loose ranking if I can get better ranking om categorypages. After all the purpose is to sell and not giving out information.

What's your opinion, is it a good idea to merge these pages or is there a better solution?

#seo#keywords#google

Matt1966
Moderator (243 upvotes)

Yes, it sounds like Keyword Cannibalism.

I would normally say just add this information to your money page, but in this case... if it's good for UX, but bad for SEO... the solution is simple. Remove it from Google's index!

Just add noindex to these pages which are doing you damage. This means users can still read these useful pages, but your topic will be less repetitive and Google should start ranking the "correct" page.

Another thing you could do before trying this is adding internal links from your homepage, with keyword rich anchor texts. This will tell Google "this page is out X topic" which should make Google start to change their thinking.

Good advice?

Comments 0

Boppe Member

Thanks, Matt1966. That was a good idea. It's annoying when my informationpages get 34% of the traffic and my homepage and categorypages get 34% and productpages 32%. I've just merged my 6 "sofa"-informationpages into one page and the same with my "bed"-pages. I'll try and see how that works out. If the result isn't good I'll try your noindex strategy. Sorry Matt, I'm not sure I understood this part clearly "Another thing you could do before trying this is adding internal links from your homepage, with keyword rich anchor texts. This will tell Google "this page is out X topic" which should make Google start to change their thinking. " OK, adding keyword rich internal links from my homepage to my informationpages. What do you mean by "This will tell Google "this page is out X topic" which should make Google start to change their thinking."?

Boppe
Member (0 upvotes)

Funny, I read that SEOchat was the best forum for getting support.

It doesn't seem so.

Good advice?

Comments 0

Matt1966 Moderator

I'd always advise shorter, more snappy questions (when possible!). Bear in mind, users aren't paid to answer questions. If it takes a while to grasp what the OP wants answering, they're likely to switch off as it's time-consuming.

Chedders Moderator

Must admit I read the question and got bored about 1/2 way. Site structure is quite a simple concept and I really think your way overthinking it.

Eremite
Member (0 upvotes)

The problem may lie completely different. You may have poor internal linking. The problem may be a lot of competition in your niche for selling keys. Good articles drive traffic on information keys.

Good advice?

Comments 0

Boppe Member

Eremite. A good point, but in this case I doubt poor internal linking is causing the problem.

Boppe
Member (0 upvotes)

Just an update, if somebody else have the same problem. Merging the informationpages helped my ranking.

Good advice?

Comments 0

Can several informationpages compete with categorypages and hurt my ranking and cause keyword cannibalization?

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