How To Check For Keyword Cannibalization

Hi guys, Schieler here!

Have you been struggling with keyword cannibalization or having problems identifying when you should create a new page, or add synonymous semantic phrasing to one already created?

Today we’re going to explore what causes keyword cannibalization and how to determine whether your keywords will cannibalize against themselves!

Keyword cannibalization happens when Google sees two key-phrases as semantically identical, or near Identical synonymous. This in turn forces the indexer to pick one document over the other to show in the SERP!

For example: If you create a page with the keyword “Best Gaming Chairs” and a page with the keyword “Top 10 Gaming Chairs”, Google will see them as synonymous, and pick the page that better serves the query, resulting in the other not showing in the SERP!

As it pertains to local SEO, Google may believe that two services are the same semantically, and thus creating two pages will result in one not being indexed in the SERP.

For example, Tree Removal Tucson and Branch Removal Tucson are seen as synonymous by Google, and thus we would not need to create two pages.

On the other hand however, Tree Removal Tucson and Brush Removal Tucson are not seen as synonymous.

This is because in the aforementioned example Google considers Trees and Branches the same semantically!

But in the ladder, it does not consider Trees and Brush the same!

Interesting right?

Identify two keywords – Find at least two keywords that you want to check for cannibalization!

Google Your Keywords – Open up two browser windows side by side and Google your keywords!

Analyze The Overlap Rate – With both screens open, analyze your overlap rate by looking at URLs. How many times did the same webpage, URL or document appear in both queries?

If it’s more than 4, out of 9-10 organic results (this varies by query), then it has a 40% overlap rate.

This means you can most likely rank both keywords on the same document!

Now that you manually know how to check for keyword cannibalization, you will understand what this tool does!

To save time, I head over to here to check for cannibalized keywords and repeated URLs!

Once you have followed the above link, and created an account, use the “SERP Overlap Tool” to check for repeated URLs!

After doing so, enter two or more keywords that are comma separated and hit “Compare”. The tool will then analyze the live SERP and let you know the overlap rate!

For more questions on this Sticky Note, follow us back to Facebook 👇👇