Consolidating Pages to Prevent Keyword Cannibalisation

This is something that has become more of an issue since the rise of AI and generative writing, and it is a problem which Google is very aware of and actively combatting.

A few key things for readers before we continue:

1. Keyword cannibalisation is when two pages in the same website are competing for the same keywords in Google’s search results.
2. This happens when the content on the pages are too similar.
3. To follow this guide, you will need to have Google Search Console (GSC) set up for your website.

How can you see if this is happening?

The best way to see if this is happening is to use Google Search Console.

1. Login into GSC, assuming it is set up.
2. Go to ‘Performance > Search Results’ in the left panel.
3. Select a query you want to rank for.
4. Go to the pages tab, and check the average rank of the pages
   1. 1. Are there lots of pages ranking for the query?
      2. Are the average ranks close together?

Remember to discount things like FAQ pages, as they will have great average rank only because they will feature in ‘people also asked’ snippets.

How can you prevent this from happening?

The main thing you have to remember here, is that you need ensure that the pages have separate intent.

If the pages server the same intent of the user, then the pages should be combined into one piece. You can usually fit the solution into two buckets:

1. If the pages are supposed to serve different user intents (for example, one is to inform, the other is to sell) then you should either:
   1. Combine the pages into one, ensuring that the user experience allows the user to easily navigate to the section that serves their intent best. Always remove the page with the worst rank and redirect into the page with the best rank.
   2. Analyse and rewrite one or both pages, with a much clearer intent for what they serve, being careful not to overlap. Assuming the pages serve different intents, one of the pages shouldn’t be trying to rank for the keyword you are investigating.
2. If the pages are indeed intended to serve the same users for the same keyword, it is duplicate content. The pages should be combined, taking the best points from each.

Important to consider

If you are looking at a keyword, before making any changes, always double check that the pages you are investigating do not bring in any notable traffic from other valuable keywords. You can do this by clicking on the page and ensuring there is no query filter enabled.

Best practices for solving keyword cannibalisation

You should have a clear keyword map for everything that you trying to rank for, mapped to each page. There should be no overlap.

Every keyword in your target list should be checked every 3-6 months, to make sure Google is not confused over the intent or targeting of any of your pages. As algorithm updates happen, over time Google can change how it perceives pages and ranks them for specific keywords.