On Page/Site Architecture Wizards - I Could Use Your Help

I have an eccommerce store that could be making a lot more money if I fixed this keyword cannibilization-like problem and resume doing seo to it. It has bugged me for a long time since I'm not sure what to do so I have just let it sit for months, wasting away potential money.

Example Keywords Causing the Problems:

Main Keyword = Dog Treats = 10,000 searches
Product Keyword = Johns Dog Treats = 250 searches
Product Keyword = Uncle Joes Dog Treats = 250 searches
Product Keyword = Jills Dog Treats = 250 searches
etc

The problem is that the big boy main keyword (dog treats) constantly seems to be fighting for a serp spot on page 1 with my best selling and click-throughed product keyword (jills dog treats) since they both contain "dog treats" in their titles.

So, on any given week when I search "dog treats" I will either see: both of them ranking on the bottom of page 1, or "jills dog treats" ranking instead, with my main dog treats page no where to be found. It then cycles between these phases in google each week - overall neither page really gaining serp momentum long term because of the constant bouncing around.

I've tried pointing a couple EMD links at the main dog treats page, hoping google would see that as the priority page for "dog treats" query, but no luck.

Other idea I had was to point all internal links from every product keyword page related to dog treats to the main keyword page:



And if that doesnt work I am almost at the point where I am thinking I should deoptimize each product keyword page by removing the word "dog" from each of their titles, so it will just be "jills treats", "johns treats", etc, instead. Hoping that will stop the "dog treat" query cannibilization entirely - though that's kind of a double edged sword approach.

Does anyone have any ideas on this?

Difficult situation OP. There are a few other options you could try I suppose:

1. rel canonical to the page you want to rank
2. Do a 302 redirect for a week or two
3. Manipulate the CTR for the page you want to rank (with bots)

I look forward to hearing more on this, i have similar issue before starting my authority site. My main keyword is also 2words, with the sub categories containing those same main keywords. . be great to hear any input to OP.

Have you tried linking from your main keyword page to your inner pages with the exact keyword?

For example from the dog treats page send an internal link to Jills Dog Treats.

I would then focus my linking efforts on dog treats page for a while, trusting that google will follow the Jills Dog Treats internal link and notice what this page is about what.

Just an idea.