Keyword cannibalization in ecommerce sites

[Hakkasan]

I'm assuming this is a common problem in ecommerce sites. Lets say we have a "sleeping bags" which has all types of sleeping bags on it. Then build a brand page "The North Face" with a subpage for The North Face sleeping bags.

Is it possible to target the sleeping bags page for "sleeping bags" while targeting the branded sleeping bag page for "The North Face sleeping bag"? how would you suggest doing this while avoiding keyword cannibalization?

[Hakkasan]

Ok, thanks! I had read that blog post and received good information from it, but I was hoping to hear some newer tactics that were floating around since the post was written in 2007.

[jamesjackson]

I agree with what James says. However it's also (and just as importantly) about your internal linking structures. Essentially you use your internal links to indicate to Google which page you want to rank for which term.

So across the site, for your sleeping bags page, you link to that page with the anchor text 'sleeping bags' and for your North Face sleeping bags page, you link to it with the anchor text 'North Face sleeping bags'.

A few external links with relevant anchor text also helps.

Rand's post provides a full run down:  http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-solve-keyword-cannibalization

[JamesNorquay]

Hi,

Yes you can do this, it is all about targeting long tails.

The main thing you need to remember is that you want to have content which is about sleeping bags on the sleeping bags page and then when you make the north facing sleeping backs page make sure the content is unique to the other page.

you deal with issue across many niches not just ecommerce, just make sure you target 1 or 2 keywords per title and page and use unique content on pages and you will be fine.

Regards,

James Norquay