Keyword Cannibalization and Targeting Similar Search Terms

[bza100]

My website is a collection of educational games for children.  We are currently in the process of doing all the onsite page optimization for the individual game pages (they currently have no title tags, meta descriptions, H1, etc.)

We created several different games to teach each particular skill.  For example, there are 4 different games children can play to learn vowels.  While offering several different games is good for the user, I am concerned as to how best to target a keyword for each particular game page without creating keyword cannibalization.

Being new to SEO, I am not sure how targeting on each page different variations of  related terms would affect SEO.  For example, if one page were to target the term "vowel games", and another the term "learning the vowels" are these keywords similar enough to cause keyword cannibalization?  If yes, would a proper solution be to use a canonical tag and designate one game as the "primary" game page for vowels?

Ideally, I realize that the best SEO solution would be to have a landing page created just for "vowel games."  Yet we created our landing pages based upon school level (preschool, kindergarten, first grade, etc) thinking of the user experience where a child only has to navigate to a single page to find all of the games for their age range.

I greatly appreciate any help in better understanding the best way to avoid any potential problems with cannibalization.

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi Bza

This is one of the most common problems I come across. I work with a lot of eCommerce sites that face the same problems. Some of them set up all products separately and others group under core products. It also has a lot to do with site structure. It's all to do with how similar the products are.

Example Structure:

Site>Category>Sub-catergory

Site>Game
Site>Games>Vowel Games
Site>Games>Vowel Games>Product1
Site>Games>Vowel Games>Product2
Site>Games>Vowel Games>Product3
Site>Games>Vowel Games>Product4

If you are unwilling to set up the Cat Vowel Games then this would be Kindergarten Games (maybe)

So now you have a category - 'Games' - with all of the generic SEO (Title, description and maybe 300 words of descriptive content.)

You also have a sub category of 'Vowel Games' - but with specific SEO (Title, description and maybe 300 words of descriptive content.) all good so far!

You now have 4 games.

Now - if these games are really similar for example 1+2 come from the same brand and have the same name - and the only difference is the size of the game or number of pieces.

Then set it up as 'Brand - Product Name'

The variants 1 and 2 can be in the form of a drop down on the page.  The canonical URL on the singe page would be 'Brand - Product Name' and the variants 1 and 2 could be an attribute so hidden behind a # or ? which can be excluded from Google (in the case of the # it is anyway - with the ? you can do it in parameters)

When someone searches for that product and title - yours would likely come up provided you have written some decent product specific content. Yes its a vowel game but there will be features that will distinguish it from other games.

If the products are ALL the same brand and title apart from a measurable attribute then they could ALL be grouped under one core product with attributes for 1,2,3,4 as a drop down on the page. e.g. size, number of pieces.

If then they are the ONLY vowel games on website and there are no others then you may wish to set them under games and get rid of the sub-category Vowel Games as there will be canonicalization between Vowel Games and the single game with the 4 attributes. (This would not be an issue if you set them under Kindergarten Games)

If the games are not the same brand and title and you canonicalise them then you run the risk of Google ignoring the canonicalisation and showing them anyway. Here you also run the risk of Google not trusting your canonicalization structure.

By teh way I would never set up Product 1 and canonicailze the other products as that one. I would always set up a non-attribute URL and then canonicalze the attributes to that one.

For an example go to Zappos and look how they canonicalise shoes with different colour attributes and sizes under one core URL. http://www.zappos.com/p/dunham-fitsync/product/8651820

I believe that with the right descriptive content for each game or brand-title game then you would still rank if someone typed in vowel games. The individual products would come up. Remember that most people start a search with Brand-Title then the type and these three pieces would be in the Title of the page. i.e. in this form: Brand Title  Vowel Games Attribute

I do this every day so if you need any further explanation just ask.

Regards Nigel

[bza100]

Hi Nigel,

Thank you so much for the response, I greatly appreciate it.  So to be a little more specific, our games are interactive HTML5 games that the child plays on our website.  So even though creating a subcategory based off brand does not apply, the same logic still applies for the site structure.  So if I am understanding you properly, we are ok keeping the games using the sub category "kindergarten"  and then targeting keywords using descriptive content for the games based off their attributes.

Site>Kindergarten Games>Vowel Game1  (attribute= letter sound)
Site>Kindergarten Games>Vowel Game 2 (attribute= identifying the vowels)
Site>Kindergarten Games>Vowel Game 3  (attribute= matching upper and lowercase vowels)
Site>Kindergarten Games>Vowel Game 4 (attribute= letter and image match)

My only concern though is whether the attributes (long tailed keywords) in the eyes of the search engines are considered semantic variations and still close enough to cause cannibalization.  Also, will they compete against each other for the broader, more heavily searched terms, like "vowel games."

Once again, thank you very much for your help.  It is very much appreciated when you are trying to learn a new skill to have experienced people share their knowledge.

[Nigel_Carr]

Apologies I missed your response for some reason - I normally get an email.

You are right in that there is a fine line between each of the games and that sits at the heart of the problem.

1. If it was me I would have a sub-category below Kindergarten games and write 300 words about the benefits of Vowel Games in the description backed up by Meta, title, compelling call to action description and a highly relevant H1. Then write specific content talking about just the benefits of each type of game on the game pages 1-4

Site>Kindergarten Games>Vowel Games>Vowel game 1 etc

And sit all four games on that.

2. If you can't do that then you could have one page for all four games as I suggested (like the Zappos model)

So:

Site>Kindergarten Games>Vowel Games     (Vowel Games being the product name)

Then have the four types of vowel game as attributes as a drop down or separate link on the page.

Site>Kindergarten Games>Vowel Game  (attribute 1 = letter sound)
                                                                  (attribute 2 = identifying the vowels)
                                                                  (attribute 3 = matching upper and lowercase vowel
                                                                  (attribute 4 = letter and image match)

Then all of the descriptive text could sit on this on page and the drop downs could be by via ajax (which wouldn't change the URL), or after the URL # or ?

e.g  http://www.site.com/kindergarten-games/vowel-game#attribute1=letter sound
       http://www.site.com/kindergarten-games/vowel-game#attribute2=identifying the vowels

etc

If you do it this way you risk splitting the juice four ways:

Site>Kindergarten Games>Vowel Game1  (attribute= letter sound)
Site>Kindergarten Games>Vowel Game 2 (attribute= identifying the vowels)
Site>Kindergarten Games>Vowel Game 3  (attribute= matching upper and lowercase vowels)
Site>Kindergarten Games>Vowel Game 4 (attribute= letter and image match)

It's clear that people are much more likely to type in vowel games so this is not the strongest way when you have 1 or 2 above.

Regards Nigel