Regarding Avoiding Keyword Self-Cannibalization

[brentmitchell]

I ran some of my pages through the 'on-page report card' and one thing that kept popping up was to Avoid Keyword Self-Cannibalization.

I thought the best SEO practice was to have anchor text at the end of your article that matched your target keywords. Is this not accurate? Please let me know the best practice so I can make sure my pages are all optimized correctly. Thanks.

Here is an example:

http://www.youdrivethesuccess.com/culture/real-estate-commission-split/

[SteveOllington]

If, through your on and off-page SEO your telling Google that page x is relevant for keyword y, then the last thing you want to do is link out of that page with keyword y as the anchor text.

If you think about it, it's confusing for the search engine... everything your telling it is that for keyword y, see page x. Then, on page x, you have a link which says, actually, see page z for keyword y. You're passing it on to a different page for that keyword through using it as anchor text.

Hope that helps

[brentmitchell]

ok, i see your point....should there be an internal link in the last sentence or did i dream that was good practice? thanks for your advice!

[SteveOllington]

It's good to have internal links through-out the body copy (not too many though) as long as they point to relevant pages within the site... just not using the anchor text of the keyword for the page you're on... if that makes sense

[brentmitchell]

thanks steve!