Keyword Canibalization!

[maldiniii]

I have a page and it's ranking for a keyword. I placed an internal text link with that keyword as an anchor from that page to that page. The pages is linking to itself.

Why on-page report card sees that anchor text link as a cannibalization link?

Another problem that i cannot resolve about keyword cannibalization is that the same tool sees cannibalizing link for different kw.

Ex : I have a page/category about shoes. From that page i link with anchor text links (the name of the anchor is the name of subcategory ) to subcategories which are men shoes, women shoes, kids shoes, etc.

Now, why those links are seen as a cannibalization links for the keyword shoes?

[RobertFisher]

I am not sure about the term link cannibalization. I think you are mixing two things. Excessive internal links and keyword cannibalization.

First on the internal link url.com/example to url.com/example the issue first to me is one of user experience and the second is that while it may not directly harm your ranking in the sense you are losing something, it does nothing to assist in crawling the site for the purpose of indexing which leads to ranking and could potentially do otherwise.

As to the shoes as keyword issue, at some point you have to offer differentiation to the software and to the client. If you are using the moz on page optimization and you put in shoes for the page, that is what it will look at. It is not looking at the site, it is looking at the page. So, if you have said on the page we have men's shoes, green men shoes, running shoes, ladies sating running shoes, etc. it is going to find every occurrence and report that. It has nothing to do with the link. The link issue is a different issue all together. You are linking to yourself for no reason.

[SEOSHARK]

maldiniii, i see all too often sites will have this as an option to get to the top or bottom of that same page. Rather than the term "TOP" or BOTTOM, i have seen this.

If the links location is located for GOOD VISITOR USE, rather than just a link I think your good.

It would help to have a site to look at..

Also, without the link and term, are you happy with the keyword density?

Best,

Tom

[maldiniii]

@ Robert - The keyword density os ok for that page. I've seen many sites that have lots of pages linking to itself and a link in header or in footer with the most important kw on all internal pages. I know that it will not boost your rankings but it is easier to place an internal link with the anchor text desired.

@SeoShark - The link is placed in footer and yes, without that link and term i am happy with the density.