Are your web pages competing against each other to get ranked on the SERPs? That’s counterproductive. Read on to find out how content consolidation can help you.
Has your brand been creating content for a while now?
Chances are you’re likely to reach a point when you’ve exhausted new topic ideas.
Some of the new content that you publish may even overlap with posts that are already on your website. Alternatively, you may also have a series of related posts, none of which are long-form or detailed.
This can lead to a situation where your content is competing against other similar posts on your website to get ranked. Now, Google doesn’t show more than two results from the same domain.
So, when you are competing against yourself, you’re losing out on the chance to showcase the best posts that you have. In a nutshell, having more content isn’t always great. Sometimes, it can be problematic for getting ranked in the SERPs.
That’s where content consolidation comes into the picture.
What Is Content Consolidation?
Content consolidation refers to the process of creating a single piece of high-quality content by combining posts on similar topics.
For instance, if you have multiple articles on the benefits and strategies of influencer marketing, you can combine them into a detailed guide on influencer marketing. By doing so, you can publish posts that provide more value to the readers and have a better authority on the chosen subject.
Content consolidation often involves the following activities:
- Identify posts or pages that are identical or cover similar topics.
- Remove content that is low-quality and irrelevant.
- Optimize posts based on search intent.
- Update and reorganize content for better readability and user experience.
- Combine similar posts into one comprehensive post.
The principle behind this concept is that the quality of your content trumps the quantity. In terms of content and SEO, less can actually be more.
How Content Consolidation Can Boost Your SEO Efforts
Relevance and quality of content are two important factors for getting ranked on Google. That’s exactly what content consolidation can help you with. Through a thorough audit, you can optimize your content and increase its relevance for your target audience.
It’s a crucial piece of the puzzle for your SEO strategy. If multiple posts from your site target the same keyword having the same user intent, it can be counterproductive.
It can lead to a situation where your posts cannibalize one another. Since they are competing for the same online real estate, your SEO efforts are getting undermined.
There is no point making similar keywords and pages compete.
By consolidating your content, you have a better chance of ranking for your main keyword without having to compete against your own articles.
In addition to this, content consolidation also has another benefit. You can create detailed guides and updated resources from your existing content without spending too much time on it. It’s like giving new life to your old content.
When you update your content and make it more scannable, you also make it easy for web crawlers to understand the overall context. This, in turn, can help you get ranked on the SERPs, especially if your content is intent-focused.
How Google Leveraged Content Consolidation to Boost Their Organic Traffic and Click-Through Rate
Regular content and SEO audits also ensure that you don’t keep low-quality or thin content that can hurt your ranking potential.
In fact, Google itself saw great results with content consolidation. In an audit in 2019, they realized that they had managed to create a huge number of sites that were almost duplicates of each other. They were all based on varied marketing goals and campaigns.
Such duplicate content was confusing for a search engine as well as the users. After the completion of their site audit, they decided to clean up their sites for Google Retail. They consolidated content from six websites and focused on boosting just one website’s authority.
Because of this, the main site’s click-through rate for calls-to-action doubled. Furthermore, the organic traffic also increased by 64%.
Image via ThinkWithGoogle
Now, Google spells it out clearly on their blog.
They have mentioned that on-page performance is crucial. But if you want to create a successful SEO strategy, you should broaden your perspective and take the whole web ecosystem into consideration. It can go a long way in boosting traffic and engagement.
3 Tips For Effective Content Consolidation
Now that you know why content consolidation is such an important strategy to boost your SEO efforts, let’s discuss how you can go about the process. Here are a few tips to make it easy for you to consolidate your content:
1. Look For Indexed Pages
Wondering how to find duplicate content on your site? The first step is to check the total number of pages that your website has indexed on Google.
Run a search query in Google for: “site:example.com.” Alternatively, you can also look for the indexed pages in the Google Search Console. The total number that you get should match the number of pages that you’ve created. If the math doesn’t add up, that means you have duplicate pages.
2. Identify Poorly-Performing Pages
For purging, you first need to figure out which pages aren’t delivering any website traffic and engagement. For this, you can go to Google Analytics and check out the Behavior section in “All Pages.”
You can select a time period and get a report. You’ll find page views for each content page. For easy tracking, you can sort the list in descending order.
It may be hard to do but delete the pages that aren’t performing well.
3. Create Topic Clusters
To create high-authority articles by combining several others, you’ll need to recognize the ones that are complementary. A good way to go about it is to create topic clusters. Think of it as a large topic that can have various chapters or subsections under it.
For example, website building can be a topic cluster. If you have posts on website design, tools for building sites, and such similar topics, you can put them together. But keep in mind that only inter-related topics should be grouped together. Otherwise, you may lose out on keeping your content relevant.
Are You Ready to Boost Your Rankings with Content Consolidation?
Having too many posts on similar topics and intent can do more harm than good. In such a case, your posts start competing with each other. Ultimately, this can reduce the effectiveness of your SEO strategy.
With content consolidation, you can create high-authority pillar content that has a better chance of getting ranked. At the same time, you can purge thin content and update outdated posts. It’s a strategy that all marketers need to incorporate to get the most out of their SEO efforts.
Do you have any questions about content consolidation? Please feel free to add them in the comments section.
Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in influencer marketing, content marketing, and SEO. He is the co-founder of Attrock, a digital marketing agency. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities.
