When there are two pages on a site that both fit reasonably well in a search result, you may run into problems—they can actually hurt each other. Here are some suggested solutions.
Let’s start today with an example from this site. The page for SEO and the blog compete with each other in the search results for the term SEO. Sometimes even the homepage joins in and creates issues. The reason is that it’s not entirely clear to Google which page is the “right” one for that search result. There are several reasons for this, one being that we’ve actually allowed it to continue. We’ll talk a bit about the technical causes and what can be done about them.
Fresh content
One reason why the blog on this site competes with the SEO page is that the blog is frequently updated with content that many people want to read. That naturally creates interest from Google as well, and even though the page today isn’t optimized to rank for SEO, Google’s strong preference for fresh and interesting content (whether it’s interesting is for you to decide, but technically speaking) still grants the page a position.
Historical factors
The second reason the blog appears for SEO is that it was once the landing page we had optimized for that search result. This history is not something Google easily forgets.
And links
The third reason is that there are links with anchor texts containing SEO pointing to the page. Even though it’s not a large number or especially strong links overall, they still have an effect. On top of that, there are plenty of internal links to the page.
What can be done about the problem?
The result of all this is that it becomes unclear to Google which page on the site is the best for that search query. Should it show the page that is clearly optimized for SEO, or should it display the stronger and generally more engaging page? Often, the outcome is that one of the pages is shown, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be the best-performing one. In cases where the SEO page is displayed, the site ranks better; when the blog is displayed, the site ranks worse. It may seem unreasonable that Google sometimes chooses a page that doesn’t fit as well, thereby lowering rankings—but that’s how it works, and we’ve seen this happen again and again on many sites.
The solution is, of course, to make it ruthlessly clear that only one of the pages is correct. On this site, we’ve chosen to make changes slowly and gradually, partly to gauge exactly where the threshold lies in this particular search result, but also because it’s generally wise to make changes slowly when working with SEO. Below is a list of changes we’ve already made and changes we plan to make. Finally, there are also some measures you can take if you really need to bring out the heavy artillery.
Cautious changes
De-optimize the page
By making the unwanted page less optimized for the search query, you can make it clearer which page is the right one. For example, we removed SEO from the main heading—where the blog used to be called the SEO Blog, it’s now just called Blog. The same can of course be applied to titles, subheadings, and so on.
Review internal anchor texts
When we still called the blog the SEO Blog, we linked internally to it with that anchor text. By removing SEO from the internal anchors, we make it clear that we don’t consider it to be about SEO. Together with the previous step, this unfortunately means we’ve lost rankings for the phrase “SEO blog,” which is a fairly good term to rank for. Today, we hold third place, but we can probably expect that to drop further in the future.
Sitemaps
HTML sitemaps used to be common, and then it was a good idea to use the right anchor text on the links in them. Today, we don’t recommend using an HTML sitemap at all, as search engines can interpret them as spammy. However, there may be reason to review your XML sitemap. You may want to exclude the less important of the two pages from it.
Link from the page that shouldn’t rank
One of the more effective methods of clarifying is to link from the page that shouldn’t rank to the correct one using the exact anchor text. A simple navigation link won’t do here—it needs to be a link within the body text.
Keep the right page updated
More or less regular changes to the page will make it appear more important internally on the site. A page you care about gets updates; a page that never changes is clearly less important. If, as in our case, you have a static page that never changes competing against the blog, there’s much to gain from updating the content on the static page at regular intervals.
Less cautious changes
Remove content from the cannibalizing page
By removing or moving content from the page you don’t want to rank, you reduce the risk of it eating away at the strength of the other. You can either shorten the content or move it entirely to the more important page. This will of course harm the other keywords on the page quite a lot, but it’s a prioritization you might choose to make.
Set a canonical
Canonical tags can be a solution here. By specifying that the more important page is canonical, you can transfer all value from one page to the other. What’s important here is that Google may not accept your canonical if the pages don’t have the same content—or at least a large overlapping subset.
Kill the page and redirect
The third and final option is simply to redirect the page to the other. Merge all the content and set up a 301 redirect. This way, you kill all the rankings the page had but transfer maximum value to the one you want to rank.
Magnus Bråth
Consultant & Adviser
Magnus is one of the world's most prominent search marketing specialists and primarily works with management and strategy at his agency Brath AB.