Keyword Self-Cannibalization

[tdsnet]

Hi, Happy Friday!

I was advised to look at the SEO strategy of a UK SEO company and copy a technique they used, however, I have doubts that this technique is any good.

So mydomain.com targets My Domain

For my main keyword phrase, I was told to place a link to a newly created inner page in my footer, targeting the main keyword and on this page, create unique content which points back to my homepage.

Now I also have mydomain.com/my-domain.php which has a link to mydomain.com with anchor text My Domain.

Based on the SEOMoz reports, this now seems to be Keyword Self Cannibalisation and I think that it is diluting link juice and the value of my SEO on my homepage for this term rather than helping.

Can you advise if this technique is wrong?

[RyanKent]

In short, each page on your site should focus a single keyword or phrase. You can stretch it further but doing such dilutes your SEO efforts.

If your home page targets "my domain" then it should be the only page on your site to target that exact phrase. You would need to alter the phrase on other pages to avoid cannibalization.

If you are willing to share your domain name and the page involved we can offer more specific feedback.

[gmk1567]

If newly created inner page and home page target the same keyword then definitely it will be an issue.

Whereas internal links with different anchor texts will be helpful.

[AlanMosley]

I have not tested this, but It could have merit,

puting link in the footer may limit self canabization, and you will be getting more back. Except I remeber that links back to home page do not pass much credit for link text.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/testing-the-value-of-anchor-text-optimized-internal-links

simply linking from your home page to moe then one child pages and back will raise the page rank of your home page but lower the PR of the child pages

this pr calc will show that
http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank_calculator.php

[tdsnet]

Great resources, thanks for sharing these and your opinion too.

It certainly seems to be an area of SEO where a period of testing is going to be required to get the best fit for us.