Cross-market traffic cannibalization happens when a search engine displays a version of a website intended for one market in the search results of another market. For instance, a user in the UK searching for a product might be presented with the US version of a company’s website, despite the existence of a UK-specific page. This misalignment can lead to user confusion, decreased trust, and potential loss of sales. There is a more detailed example and case study on Cross-Market Traffic Cannibalization on Hreflang Builder.
Why Is It a Problem?
1. Inaccurate Performance Metrics
Cross-market cannibalization is often detected with rank reports or traffic declines by a local Search team or agency. Becase traffic intended for one market is being captured by another market. This can skew analytics for both markets making it challenging to assess the effectiveness of regional marketing strategies.
2. Loss of Local Revenue
When users are directed to a non-local version of a website, they may encounter issues such as different currencies, shipping restrictions, or irrelevant promotions. This can result in abandoned purchases and a decline in local sales. When working with Hreflang Builder over the years cart abandonment losses were identified from $100k per month to more than $20 million in one case.
3. Poor User Experience
Directly tied to loss of revenue is the impact on customer experience. Users expect content tailored to their region. Being directed to a foreign version of a site can lead to confusion and frustration, damaging the brand’s reputation and trustworthiness.
Contributing Factors
1. Duplicate Content Across Markets
Using identical or very similar content across different regional websites can confuse search engines, making it difficult to determine which version to display for a specific locale.
2. Improper Hreflang Implementation
The hreflang attribute helps search engines understand the geographical targeting and language of a webpage. Incorrect or missing hreflang tags can result in the incorrect version of a site appearing in search results.
3. Lack of Localization
Failing to adapt content to the cultural and linguistic nuances of a target market can reduce relevance and engagement, prompting search engines to favor other versions.
Solutions to Mitigate Cross-Market Cannibalization
1. Implement Hreflang Tags Correctly
Ensure that each regional version of your website includes accurate hreflang tags to guide search engines in serving the appropriate content to users based on their location and language preferences.
2. Differentiate Content Across Regions
Customize content to reflect local culture, language, and consumer behavior. This not only enhances user experience but also signals to search engines the distinctiveness of each regional page.
3. Conduct Regular SEO Audits
Regularly review your website’s performance across different markets to identify and address instances of cross-market cannibalization. Tools like Google Search Console can help monitor which versions of your site are appearing in various regional search results.
4. Use Geotargeting and Localization Strategies
Utilize geotargeting techniques to ensure content is tailored to the user’s location. Additionally, localizing elements such as currency, measurements, and contact information can improve relevance and user satisfaction.
Conclusion
Cross-market traffic cannibalization poses a significant challenge for businesses operating in multiple regions. By understanding its causes and implementing strategic solutions, companies can enhance their international SEO efforts, provide better user experiences, and optimize revenue across all markets.
Unfortunately, more has not been done to solve this challenge. More than 25 years ago, I gave my first presentation on the challenge of cross-market traffic cannibalization at IBM, trying to understand why Argentina dominated the rankings in Spanish-language markets. I then heard from my fellow enterprise multinationals who faced the same problem. Working with Google, we identified that the problem was caused by Argentina typically being the first Spanish language site in our country selector. Search Engines would index the pages and consider other Spanish pages duplicates, not indexing them. Ten years later Google finally offered hreflang as a solution which was a great step forward but too many companies fail at ensuring they have fundamental geo signals in place.
Cross-market cannibalization creates several problems. The most obvious is that when users click on the non-market site, the local market will lose traffic and revenue, negatively impacting their performance reporting. The second, often lesser-known problem, is that local search users do not click on the listing because the site ranking is not the local version.
At some point, this problem will be escalated, and typically by the market that is losing traffic and sales to cannibalization. When all the dust settles from the numerous meetings and discussions, everyone acknowledges that it has been a poor customer experience. A loss of traffic and revenue to the market is unacceptable, and a solution is required. The discovery and acceptance of the various forms of cannibalization are often the key drivers for hreflang implementation.
Most of my fellow enterprise multinationals had the same problem, where our Argentina website dominated and ranked across Latin America, capturing traffic from these other markets. Working with Google, we identified that the problem was caused by Argentina typically being the first Spanish language site in our country selector. Search Engines would index the pages and consider other Spanish pages duplicates, not indexing them. Ten years later Google finally offered hreflang as a solution.
