You’ve likely heard the saying, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” The same applies to a website where multiple pages unknowingly compete for the same keyword, undercutting each other’s visibility in search.
It’s a common problem. Many businesses invest in SEO, publish consistently, and still see underwhelming traffic and rankings. The reason? They’re often competing with themselves.
This issue is known as keyword cannibalization, a subtle but damaging SEO problem that can quietly erode your performance over time. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to identify it, fix it, and prevent it before it affects your results.
What is Keyword Cannibalization and How Does it Affect SEO?
To put it simply, keyword cannibalization happens when multiple pages on your website target the same keyword. Instead of helping your site rank higher, those pages end up competing with one another, confusing search engines, and weakening your overall visibility.
This usually occurs because Google isn’t sure which page is the most relevant. When it sees several pages optimized for the same keyword, it may split ranking signals between them or choose none at all.
This differs from content cannibalisation, where several pages cover overlapping topics, even if they use different keywords. Both problems reduce clarity and make it harder for your content to perform well in search.
For example, if you’ve published three posts about “SEO keyword cannibalization,” Google may not know which one to prioritize. As a result, all three pages compete with each other—and with your competitors, causing lower rankings and missed traffic.
How to Identify Keyword Cannibalization?
The first step to fixing keyword cannibalization SEO is to determine whether it’s a problem on your site. Here are possible ways to identify it on your website:
1. Use the Semrush Position Tracking Tool
This tool works by tracking your website’s ranking on Google and generating a report that highlights potential cannibalization threats on your website.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use the tool:
- Visit Semrush’s website: https://www.semrush.com/position-tracking/
- Enter your website address in the search box and click the “Set up tracking” icon.
- Specify the location for which you want to track your rankings. Click “Continue to Keywords” to proceed.
- Add your target keywords by importing them from Google Analytics or other sources using the “import from…” icon. Click ” Add Keywords to Campaign” and finally “Start Tracking”
Now that your project is set, follow this guide to identify cannibalization threats:
- Click on the “cannibalization” tab positioned at the top center.
- You’d be presented with a page showing your website’s affected keywords (keywords ranking for more than one page) and cannibal pages (URLs sharing the same keyword ranking with other URLs)
- Scroll to the cannibalization section below to check for the “keywords” breakdown
- You can further explore the cannibalization results by clicking on the arrow to see ranking URLs and the associated keywords
2. Detect Using Google Search Console (GSC)
Google Search Console (GSC) is free and totally helpful. Here’s how to get started with the tool:
- Sign in using your Google account
- On your first login, you’d be presented with a page asking you to add a property with options for Domain or URL prefix. Go for the domain (since your target is your website) and click continue
- You’ll be directed to a new page. From there, navigate to the “Performance” menu and select “Search results”
- Scroll down to see the list of your website’s performance on search results and clicks
- Choose a keyword and click on it. This will filter the results to show only data for that query, including URLs that appeared in search results for that query and performance metrics (impressions, clicks, CTR) for those URLs
- Go to the “Pages” tab to identify the URLs ranking for this query
- You can say keyword cannibalization is present if multiple URLs generate clicks and impressions for the same keyword
3. Manually Search for Your Website on Google
You can effectively carry out your search using the “site” command. “Site” is a Google Search Operator that allows you to channel your search to just one website.
Site: + domain: + keyword will find pages within your website with that specific keyword.
For example, “site:justwords.in: seo services” will show you pages in the “Justwords” website ranking for “seo services.”
Search for your website pages using the above procedure and analyze the results. If multiple pages fulfill the same user intent, then you have keyword cannibalization to fix.
How to Fix Keyword Cannibalization?
Fixing keyword cannibalization involves identifying your most preferred web page for each targeted keyword and ensuring it is clear to Google as a priority in search rankings. Here are the most effective solutions to fix keyword cannibalization:
Canonical Tags
Canonical Tags are ideal for fixing cannibalization in situations where you have duplicate pages serving different purposes beyond SEO value. The duplicate content may be due to different product variations or language variants (e.g, British vs American English)
The canonical tags help bring Google to focus on your preferred version of the duplicate pages.
Here’s how to fix cannibalization with Canonical Tags.
- Simply add this tag “<link rel=”canonical” href=” to the HTTP header of your most preferred page.
- Here is what it will look like: <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://Domain/preferred-page/” />
This helps resolve cannibalization issues while preserving duplicate pages.
Content Creation
This is applicable in a situation where none of your pages address your searchers’ keyword query.
For example, you have web pages for “Nike shoes” and “Adidas shoes,” but both pages are optimized for the keyword “basketball shoes.” This situation illustrates a potential cannibalization issue on your website.
You can resolve this potential issue by following the steps
- Create another page for “basketball shoes”
- Import shoes from your Nike and Adidas pages into the new page
- Render the initial keyword (basketball shoes) irrelevant for both pages
- Add a link to the new page using the anchor text “basketball shoes”
Redirects
This is applicable when multiple pages on your website target the same keywords, but only one of the pages is useful.
Here is how you can fix your keyword cannibalization using this approach
- Determine the page with the highest SEO potential using performance data like backlinks, ranking, and traffic
- Update your chosen page by merging useful content from your duplicate pages and optimizing for target keywords
- Launch the new version of your chosen page
- Set up the 301 redirects, an HTTP code that redirects searchers from the old page to the replacement page
Noindex Tags
Use a noindex tag when you need to keep a page live but don’t want it appearing in search results. This is useful for low-value pages, like internal search results, thin content, or duplicate variations, that could dilute your SEO signals or compete with more important URLs.
Adding noindex tells Google to exclude the page from indexing without deleting it from your site.
Optimize Links and Content
Use this approach when a page with stronger SEO authority is outranking a page that’s actually more relevant for the keyword. This often happens when older or better-linked content pulls ahead, even if it’s not the best match for search intent.
To correct this, add an internal link from the less relevant page to the preferred one. Use the target keyword as anchor text—this helps signal to Google which page should take priority for that term.
How to Prevent Keyword Cannibalization
Keyword cannibalization is best tackled before new web pages and blog posts are published, and the best part is that it takes very little effort to do so. Here are the easy steps to follow:
- Search for your website using the “site” command
- Check the results to determine which page is currently ranking for the target keywords
- If a page is already ranking, optimize it further to improve its search engine performance. For better results, you can consult white label SEO professionals to help you create a strategic SEO and content plan
Final Words
While it may sound like a technical term, at its core, keyword cannibalization is about making sure your website isn’t working against itself. When too many pages compete for the same keyword, your site loses clarity, and so does search engines.
By identifying and addressing cannibalization issues early, you can ensure that each page on your site has a clear, defined purpose in search results. So, what’s the key thing to note here? Be intentional with your keywords and strategic with your pages. That’s how to help reach your website’s full potential.
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