Attempting to rank for a particular keyword by using it on multiple URLs may sound like a good idea, but it can actually negatively impact your keyword rankings. Even using semantically related keywords that share a search intent can make it harder to rank.
If you’ve heard of keyword cannibalization but don’t know what it is or have been told your most important web pages suffer from it, get ready to tackle this little-known problem.If you’ve heard of keyword cannibalization but don’t know what it is or have been told your most important web pages suffer from it, get ready to tackle this little-known problem. In this post, I’ll help you better understand:
- How to fix keyword cannibalization.
- What keyword cannibalization is.
- How it can impact your web pages.
- How to detect keyword cannibalization.
What Is Keyword Cannibalization?
Keyword cannibalization occurs when a website has multiple pages targeting identical keywords and search intent. In these situations, Google must choose which page to prioritize in search engine results pages (SERPs), and it may not select the page you’d prefer to rank higher. Since higher rankings drive significantly more clicks, this internal competition can ultimately reduce your overall organic traffic.
However, not all similar keywords create cannibalization issues. It’s perfectly acceptable to have separate pages targeting related keywords when they serve distinctly different purposes. Consider two pages at different stages of the buyer’s journey: an informational blog post that educates visitors about a product’s benefits and a transactional product page designed for purchases. Despite using the same or similar keywords, these pages fulfill different user intents — one nurtures potential customers while the other converts them.
The real problem emerges when you have multiple pages with both similar keywords and similar intent. These pages become direct competitors, fighting for the same audience and diluting your search performance. This is true keyword cannibalization, and it requires strategic intervention to resolve.
Why Is Keyword Cannibalization Bad for SEO?
Keyword cannibalization undermines SEO performance by reducing ranking potential, diluting link equity, and forcing pages to compete against each other for targeted keywords. It also wastes crawl budget and weakens overall site authority.
Reduces Your Ability To Rank
When multiple pages compete for identical keywords, they inevitably underperform compared to what a single, focused page could achieve. Instead of consolidating your topical authority into one comprehensive resource, you fragment it across several weaker pages that struggle to reach top rankings. This division of strength means none of your pages will rank as highly as they could with unified focus.
You also lose control over which pages Google chooses to promote. If you have a specific page designed to rank highest — perhaps because it converts better than your other pages — you might find Google has elevated a less strategic page instead. This misalignment between your business goals and search visibility can significantly impact your conversion rates and revenue.
Dilutes Link Equity
Cannibalization severely weakens your link-building efforts by scattering valuable backlinks across multiple competing pages. When authoritative websites could link to one definitive resource, they instead distribute their link equity among several pages, reducing the individual SEO power of each. This fragmentation means your pages collectively receive less ranking boost than a single, link-rich destination page would command.
Competing With Yourself
Keyword cannibalization turns your own content into competitors fighting for the same SERP real estate. This internal battle splits your potential organic traffic across multiple lower-ranking pages rather than concentrating it on one high-performing result.
Identifying Keyword Cannibalization
Suspecting keyword cannibalization is one thing, proving it requires systematic investigation. Here are three methods to pinpoint exactly where your pages are competing against each other for the same keywords.
1. Find Keyword Cannibalization With a Spreadsheet
The most straightforward approach involves creating a comprehensive content inventory. Set up a spreadsheet with one column for URLs and another for their target keywords. As you populate this document, patterns of overlap will quickly emerge. Multiple pages targeting identical keywords with similar search intent signal potential cannibalization issues.
Don’t overlook metadata cannibalization, which often flies under the radar but can be equally damaging. Create additional columns (or a separate spreadsheet) to audit your title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags. Ecommerce sites are particularly vulnerable here, as product category pages frequently share similar metadata despite targeting specific products. Since these pages often have minimal unique content, metadata becomes crucial for differentiation and rankings.
2. Identifying Keyword Cannibalization With Google Search Console
To use Google Search Console to identify cannibalization problems, sign in and click ‘Search results’ on the left menu.
Then, scroll down to ‘Queries.’ This will show you a list of search queries from which your website has gained impressions and clicks.
Click on a specific search term, and then click on ‘Pages’ tab. Now you can see all the different pages Google has surfaced for that term, allowing you to find which search terms bring up multiple pages on your site. If more than one URL shows up per term, then you may be suffering from keyword cannibalization.
Please note, if Google provides sitelinks for your site, then a keyword query may surface multiple pages from your site. However, that doesn’t mean there’s keyword cannibalization. A quick Google search of the keyword will help distinguish between sitelinks and true cannibalization.
3. Find Keyword Cannibalization With Ahrefs
To find keyword cannibalization with Ahrefs Site Explorer, enter your site’s URL and hit the search button. Then, click on ‘Organic keywords’ on the left side menu.
At the top of the results page, click on ‘Keyword’ and input the keyword you want to check.
Click ‘Apply,’ followed by ‘Show Results.’
Click on the ‘Position history’ button next to the URL to see rank changes over time and identify whether the keyword has been impacted.
If you see more than URL, like those illustrated by the orange and blue lines above, you may have keyword cannibalization.
How To Fix Keyword Cannibalization
Now that you know how to find keyword cannibalization, it’s time to mitigate the damage it can do. Luckily, there are several different strategies you can use to go about fixing keyword cannibalization issues that may be hurting your site’s SEO.
1. Merge or Prune Content
The best way to fix cannibalization issues is often by merging similar content. If you find you have two or more weak pages cannibalizing each other’s keywords and traffic, then it’s probably best to consolidate them into one page. This is preferred when you have one page that stands out above the others.
Merging the content of multiple pages into one single page will reduce keyword competition and boost that page’s SEO value, content value, and ability to pull in organic traffic. By consolidating related content, you concentrate your topical authority, improve content depth, and create opportunities to freshen up your content and perhaps expand its scope.
If merging isn’t practical, consider pruning lower-quality content entirely. Remember to implement 301 redirects from removed pages to preserve any existing link equity and update your internal linking structure to avoid broken links.
2. Deoptimize Cannibals
You don’t necessarily need to delete a page or its content to stop it from cannibalizing the keywords of another page. Another option is to simply deoptimize competing pages for the keywords they cannibalize. Removing those keywords from the page will stop that page from ranking for them, allowing your preferred page to rank without internal competition.
Which page should you deoptimize?
Choose which page to deoptimize based on search intent alignment. For example, if you have both “Do I Need Glasses if One Eye Is Blurry?” and “16 Reasons You Have Blurred Vision” competing for “blurred vision,” the broader, more comprehensive article likely deserves to rank. Deoptimize the more specific page and redirect its focus to long-tail variations or related topics.
Deoptimizing a page also frees it up to be re-optimized with other keywords. Take this opportunity to perform some more keyword research and to find new keywords that may be a better fit for the page. Check out our guide on how to do keyword research to learn more about best practices for performing keyword research, or take advantage of our keyword research services to have your research done by our trained professionals.
3. Use Canonical Tags
You can place canonical tags into the HTML of a page to let Google know a specific page is the master copy. This tells Google which pages to rank and which ones not to. However, Google can disregard this suggestion.
To canonicalize a page, apply the canonical tag to the <head> HTML section of any pages you don’t want competing with the master page. The tag looks like this:
<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://yourwebsite.com/masterpage”> Canonicalization is a strategy best used for handling duplicate content and is not usually recommended for dealing with cannibalization issues. However, it’s worth considering if merging or re-optimizing content isn’t possible.
4. Noindex Page
When you need to keep a page live but want to remove it from search competition, noindexing pulls it from Google’s index entirely. This works well for pages that serve internal purposes but shouldn’t compete for organic traffic.
Use a robots meta tag to noindex the page and remove it from your XML sitemap. For pages already indexed, use Google Search Console’s URL Removal tool to expedite their removal from search results.
Protect Yourself From Keyword Cannibalization
Once you’ve fixed your website’s cannibalization issues, implement practices to help you avoid further problems in the future.
One thing you can do is create a process to help you keep better track of your keywords. For example, try using a spreadsheet to list the keywords you’re targeting and their associated URLs. You can use it to check if you’ve already targeted a specific keyword for which you want to optimize a new page. Every time you create a new page, you can add it to the spreadsheet and expand your list.
If you don’t feel like tracking all of your keywords all of the time, consider performing regular keyword audits to make sure you haven’t accidentally cannibalized any keywords with your new content. Use tools like Google Search Console or Ahrefs Site Explorer to regularly scan your site’s keywords and fix any keyword cannibalization problems.
Perform a Professional SEO Audit Today
The best way to identify keyword cannibalization issues is by using a professional SEO audit service on your website. Our comprehensive SEO audit can identify any cannibalization problems your site is currently struggling with and any other issues affecting your site’s ability to rank and pull in organic traffic from search engines. Book a free SEO consultation with Victorious today, and let’s improve your SEO!
