SEOMOZ tool - on page optmization question

[stacksofracks]

Ok, I had the tool examine a page and while I got an A, it did say this.....

Avoid Keyword Self-Cannibalization

Easy fix

<dl>

<dt>Cannibalizing link</dt>

<dd>"Kitchen Storage Racks", "Home Storage Racks", "Garage Storage Racks", "Wine Storage Racks", "Bicycle Storage Racks", and "wine storage racks"Explanation</dd>

<dd>It's a best practice in SEO to target each keyword with a single page on your site (sometimes two if you've already achieved high rankings and are seeking a second, indented listing). To prevent engines from potentially seeing a signal that this page is not the intended ranking target and creating additional competition for your page, we suggest staying away from linking internally to another page with the target keyword(s) as the exact anchor text. Note that using modified versions is sometimes fine (for example, if this page targeted the word 'elephants', using 'baby elephants' in anchor text would be just fine).</dd>

<dt>Recommendation</dt>

<dd>Unless there is intent to rank multiple pages for the target keyword, it may be wise to modify the anchor text of this link so it is not an exact match.</dd>

</dl>

The keyword that was optimized was "storage racks". In the explanation it says that baby elephants is fine if elephants is your keyword so why isn't

wine storage racks or kitchen storage racks ok

what is the difference? why is mine cannibalizing but baby elephants is not?

This may be very simplistic to you all but I'm learning as i go, thank you in advance

[ShaMenz]

Hi Terrie,

Don't feel bad about asking the question at all - this is a tough topic to get your head around!

In fact, rather than butcher an explanation and confuse you more, I would recommend you read this excellent post from Rand How to Solve Keyword Cannibalization. The post is from 2007, but still the best and simplest explanation of how to fix the problem that I have seen so far. I would suggest you read the comments as well - Rand has dropped a whole lot more excellent information in his answers.

The key to seeing the difference here is not just about the keywords, but the anchor text and which pages the links are pointed to.

Once you follow the structure illustrated in Rand's post, it should become much easier to understand, and also much easier to spot the problem when you look at the pages on your site.

Hope that helps,

Sha