We've launched an existing new feature today: the Internal Competing Pages report. This report helps you quickly find pages ranking for the same keyword, within the same site. This type of internal competition often leads to lower rankings for your site as a whole.
What is internal competition?
Internal competition happens when two or more pages of the same site rank for the same keyword in search engines. This can happen when two pages have similar content, covering the same topic.
Why is internal competition bad for SEO?
Two pages ranking or the same keyword often means Google can't decide which of the two is most relevant. This results in lower rankings for both pages, and less organic traffic as a whole. By picking one page that should rank for that keyword, you improve your overall rankings and get more organic traffic.
How do I solve internal competition?
The first step is to identify which of the two (or more) pages you want to rank for the term. That's your target page. Next, decide if the competing page is still relevant. If not, you could remove it, and redirect it to the target page.
If the competing page still has value, for instance, because it targets other keywords or serves a different purpose, you can increase the relevance of the target page.
Some ways to increase the relevance of your target page are:
- Optimize internal linking to the target page
- Optimize the content on the target page
- Change the content of the competing page to cover a different topic.
Once you've done this, the target page should rank higher in Google, resulting in more organic traffic to your site.
How the report works
The competing pages report is part of SiteGuru Insights and takes Search Console data to find competing pages. It shows all keywords for which two or more pages meet the following criteria:
- Both have at least 25% of the clicks share for that keyword
- Both have a minimum of 10 Google impressions for the same keyword
- Both rank on page 1 or 2 of Google for that keyword
