{"id":3466,"date":"2019-07-12T09:01:21","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T09:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/?p=3466"},"modified":"2022-08-22T12:50:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T10:50:39","slug":"what-is-keyword-cannibalisation-how-can-you-fix-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/seo-blog\/what-is-keyword-cannibalisation-how-can-you-fix-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What is \u2018keyword cannibalisation\u2019? How can you fix it?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The term \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/blog\/why-you-should-be-using-negative-keywords-on-google-ads\/\">keyword<\/a> cannibalisation\u2019 refers to when a website\u2019s information architecture relies on a single keyword or phrase on multiple parts of the website. While this can occur unintentionally, having a group of pages that target the same keyword can cause problems.<\/p>\n<p>Keyword cannibalisation can also happen if you don\u2019t respect Google\u2019s guidelines about <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/blog\/what-are-black-hat-seo-techniques\/\">keyword stuffing<\/a>. This is if you don\u2019t adhere to these guidelines across multiple pages. For the majority, the point behind keyword stuffing strategies is to rank for a specific term.<\/p>\n<h2>Keyword cannibalisation<\/h2>\n<h2><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3473 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/shutterstock_595419041-e1562922042834.jpg\" alt=\"DSM Digital school of marketing - keyword cannibalisation\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/shutterstock_595419041-e1562922042834.jpg 800w, https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/shutterstock_595419041-e1562922042834-600x401.jpg 600w, https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/shutterstock_595419041-e1562922042834-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2><strong>What does \u2018keyword stuffing\u2019 mean?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The term &#8220;Keyword stuffing&#8221; denotes a system of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers. This is in an attempt to manipulate a site&#8217;s ranking in <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/blog\/why-should-care-about-adverts-ctr-google-ads\/\">Google<\/a> search results. Frequently, these keywords appear in a list or group. In addition, these may appear out of context (not as natural prose). Making pages full with keywords or numbers has the result of a negative user experience. It is possible that this could harm your site&#8217;s ranking.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is keyword density? <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Keyword density, in terms of search engine optimisation, is the percentage of times a keyword is used in the copy.<\/p>\n<p>A useful equation to use \u2013 in order to calculate the density of keywords in your copy \u2013 is as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Keyword Density = (Number of words in copy) \/ (Number of times keyword appears in copy)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If the keyword density is 11.75% there are 47 words and the keyword appears four times. This percentage is greater than the keyword stuffing percentage threshold. It is a best practice to stick to a 2% keyword density, even though there is no exact number for proper keyword density.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3472 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/The-Dangers-of-Keyword-Stuffing-1024x684-e1562922019634.jpg\" alt=\"DSM Digital school of marketing - keyword cannibalisation\" width=\"620\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/The-Dangers-of-Keyword-Stuffing-1024x684-e1562922019634.jpg 620w, https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/The-Dangers-of-Keyword-Stuffing-1024x684-e1562922019634-600x401.jpg 600w, https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/The-Dangers-of-Keyword-Stuffing-1024x684-e1562922019634-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Interestingly enough, there exists a type of keyword stuffing that isn\u2019t visible to audiences. This particular tactic stuffs terms and phrases in places which are hidden from readers. It includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Using text that is the same colour as the background (to hide words from readers but display them to search engine crawlers)<\/li>\n<li>Repeating text in the page\u2019s code, meta tags, alt attributes, and comment tags<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These types of keyword stuffing may lead <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/blog\/how-to-define-your-brand\/\">brands<\/a> into thinking that they can trick search engines into giving them higher search engine rankings. Unfortunately, both tactics can actually lead to lower scores for a website.<\/p>\n<p>To avoid keyword stuffing, you should focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.<\/p>\n<p>Examples of keyword stuffing include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lists of phone numbers minus substantial added value<\/li>\n<li>Blocks of text which list cities. In addition it states a webpage is trying to rank for<\/li>\n<li>Repetition of the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural, for example:<\/li>\n<li>We sell custom cigar humidors. Our custom cigar humidors are handmade. If you\u2019re thinking of buying a custom cigar humidor, please contact our custom cigar humidor specialists at <a href=\"mailto:custom.cigar.humidors@example.com\">cigar.humidors@example.com<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/contact-us\/\">Contact DSM Digital school of Marketing\u00a0<\/a><\/h2>\n<p>Want to know more about SEO techniques and how to get your website \u2013 using these manners \u2013 to soar up the Google Search Engine Results Pages? If so, <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/courses\/seo-and-web-analytics-course\/\">check out<\/a> the Digital School of Marketing\u2019s SEO and Web Analytics Course.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/courses\/seo-and-web-analytics-course\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-758 size-shop_single\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/DSM_Footer03-600x96.jpg\" alt=\"DSM Digital School of Marketing SEO and Web Analytics course registration\" width=\"600\" height=\"96\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Seo and Web Analytics AD\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WyJsRLuvYQA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The term \u2018keyword cannibalisation\u2019 refers to when a website\u2019s information architecture relies on a single keyword or phrase on multiple parts of the website. While this can occur unintentionally, having a group of pages that target the same keyword can cause problems. Keyword cannibalisation can also happen if you don\u2019t respect Google\u2019s guidelines about keyword&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[426],"class_list":["post-3466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo-blog","tag-keyword-stuffing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}