Keywords cannibalization issue

[Tiptopranking]

Good day! We observe the following problem: Google constantly changes one product page to another in search results. Keywords cannibalization occurs. The issue is that the site has different color versions of the same products under different URLs.

F.e. we have page with bath tray in Natural color and in the same time 6 more colored versions of the same product.

We specially set up keywords with low search volume for colored versions of bath trays but sometimes we see that they are appear in search results instead of Natural one.

How to solve this isuue?
We have 2 variants:
1. Unite all the colored versions into one page and set up 301 redirects from them to Natural colored version (there is a minus - our Collection page will look poor with 1-2 goods),
2. Set up rel=canonical for all colored versions (nor sure that Google will accept all the canonicals).

Are there any other good ideas?

 

[hipcat]

Make the product description longer with color keyword variations using H tags and proper image tags.

 

[Shobhit_22]

You mentioned that Google regularly changes your product pages (pages with different color variants of the same product) in the search pages instead of ranking only a single page. It is happening because Google is unclear about which page is the master copy and which is the duplicate.

Coming to the solutions, when we think of the first variant to redirect all the pages to a single page, in my opinion, it is not a good idea because more redirects may impact your site load.

Coming to the second variant or solution, when you canonicalize all the pages, Google will ignore all of them and randomly consider only one page as original, which we don't want.
In this case, you need to recheck your keywords first.
As you say, you have set keywords for pages with color variants to ensure that every keyword you use on each page is different. In addition, you can use long-tail keywords to differentiate the product features.
Second, you should use canonical tags to inform Google about the original page so that it will rank that particular page and leave the other duplicate pages.

 

[christax]

How to solve this isuue?
We have 2 variants:
1. Unite all the colored versions into one page and set up 301 redirects from them to Natural colored version (there is a minus - our Collection page will look poor with 1-2 goods),
2. Set up rel=canonical for all colored versions (nor sure that Google will accept all the canonicals).

Are there any other good ideas?

I would added these points to yours and you can consider

3. Use the "hreflang" attribute to indicate to search engines the language and target audience for each page. This way, you can ensure that the correct version of the page appears in search results for a specific language or geographic location.
4. Optimize each page for unique and relevant content, so that search engines have enough information to distinguish between each page. Make sure the content on each page is unique and provides value to the user, rather than just repeating the same information.
5. Consider using subdirectories or subdomains to separate the different versions of the product, rather than using different URLs. This way, you can keep all the colored versions of the bath tray on a single page while still keeping them organized.
6. Use the "noindex" tag to indicate to search engines that a page should not be included in the search results. This can be useful for pages that are not relevant to the user or for pages that you don't want to compete with the main page for ranking.

It's important to keep in mind that the goal of search engine optimization is to provide a positive user experience, so choose the solution that works best for your users while still ensuring that the right pages are being ranked.