Contents:
- What is Keyword Cannibalisation?
- Signs You Have A Keyword Cannibalisation Issue
- How to Fix Keyword Cannibalisation
- Consolidating Pages
- Canonical Tags
- Clarifying Search Intent
- Internal Linking Strategy
- Redirections or Deindexing
- Creating Clarity for Search Engines and Users
What is Keyword Cannibalisation?
Keyword cannibalisation is an SEO term that refers to when multiple pages on the same website compete for the same keyword(s), weakening each other’s search rankings. This is an on-page optimisation issue and one that needs to be addressed to ensure that individual web pages and their intent can be differentiated from others on the website, otherwise they end up competing against each other in search engine rankings.
If search engines struggle to interpret page intent and differentiate between one or more pages on the same domain, this can affect the overall website ranks. The more pages that compound the issue, the more the website could struggle with exposure. Additionally, the more complex the website, the higher the chances of users struggling to navigate it, leading to poor conversion rates and high number of user bounces and exits.
Signs You Have a Keyword Cannibalisation Issue
Use these bullet points as a check list:
- Two or more URLs ranking for the same keyword
- Rankings fluctuate between pages
- Lower click-through rate (CTR)
- Pages ranking lower than expected
- Organic traffic spread thinly across similar pages
Whilst having multiple pages ranking for any given term may sound great, and in some cases this can help to capture different search intents, it’s a fine line between being beneficial and becoming a problem.
If you see your rankings drop, traffic levels to previously higher level pages drop or ranking page fluctuations, these are all signs keyword cannibalisation has become an issue that needs to be resolved. Once search engines become confused and don’t know which page to prioritise, it can take
So, we know what keyword cannibalisation is, how do we fix it?
How To Fix Keyword Cannibalisation
There are a number of different ways to approach keyword cannibalisation; the methods you use should be dependent on the amount of similar content you have and where it is displayed on your website.
Consolidating Pages
This should be your first area of investigation to weed out any pages that are clearly too similar to other pages on the website. This could be multiple news or media pages about the same topic, 2 or more pages about one service that you offer, product categories on an ecommerce site that sell the same items or a mix of all of them. Whatever the cause, merging similar content into one of two high-quality and comprehensive pages is a good place to start.
Example:
Instead of having a product page, a blog post, a buying guide and a product demo, merge the product demo copy and the buying guide onto the product page. 301-redirect the two pages you took the copy from, leaving you with one product page and one blog post.
Canonical Tags
Canonical tags tell search engines which is the “primary” or “main” version of a page, and which are the secondary versions. It is possible to use both same-domain and separate-domain canonicals; with keyword cannibalisation issues, you would primarily use same-domain canonical tags.
Canonical tags are pieces of HTML placed in the source code of each secondary page affected. The primary page is the “master”, and any identical variants are the “secondary” pages. In effect, a canonical tag tells search engines – “this page is a duplicate or variation – please treat the URL in the href as the primary version.”
- Examples of a primary page would be a product that may be accessible in multiple categories with multiple URLs, a category page that has filters or sort options or pages that have both desktop and mobile variants with different URLs but the same content.
- The secondary pages are those with very similar or identical content to the primary pages(s) and create or add to the keyword cannibalisation/duplicate content burden on the website.
It is important to note that URLs with canonical tags to another URL will not typically be indexed and presented in search results. It is important that canonical tags are used strategically to prevent indexing problems.
Example:
Your website has Product A which is present not only in one category by type but then appears in a different category based on a colour or size variant. This is not a problem if your website generates one URL for Product A regardless of where it appears in categorisation, but if Product A has a primary URL (www.website.com/product-a) and then secondary variants that include the category in the URL string (www.website.com/category/product-a) and the content is identical on the category URL as well as the primary URL, this creates both a keyword cannibalisation and duplicate content problem.
Placing a canonical tag on www.website.com/category/product-a (and another other variants on this product) to www.website.com/product-a signals to search engines that regardless of how many variants there may be, www.website.com/product-a is the only one that should be indexed and prioritised.
Clarifying Search Intent
Once you’ve collated a list of primary and secondary pages with very similar content, merged and/or canonicalised strategically, and where possible, the time has come to clarify and differentiate search intent for the primary pages identified.
It is important that each primary page on a website targets a distinct keyword/intent. Even if you have similar products in one category, each product should be different enough from its neighbours to be unique and not a variant of another product. This is where ecommerce websites can struggle if filtering and variants of colour, size, style etc are not set up in an SEO friendly way.
The ideal set up for a website is one that follows a clear hierarchical structure. The homepage is the core page that serves all other pages, and regardless of whether a website is ecommerce or not, category or core service pages should all be unique and represent a different service, product type or topic.
Example: Ecommerce website
Ecommerce website A sells 3 different types of shoe: Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3. Within these Types, each shoe has several variants based on brand, size and colour.
The website structure looks like this:
- Homepage
- Main “Products” page
- Three category pages (Type 1, Type 2, Type 3)
- Individual product pages (one unique URL per shoe)
- Filter pages for Brand and Colour
Each individual shoe only has one core product URL, where users can select size, colour, and brand variants.
Brand and colour pages act as filter or category pages, not separate product duplicates.
Example: Non-ecommerce website:
This website offers training courses that cannot be booked online, but all of the information is available for the user to call and book over the phone or make an enquiry using the online form.
Instead of creating multiple pages targeting the same keywords, the site structures content around different search intents. Each course offered has its own Course category page, with any variants of that course offered as sub-category pages from the main Course category page.
To support this information, the website also offers informational guides, comparison articles and news around each course, but these also feed from these individual category areas by course.
Internal Linking Strategy
Check your internal linking strategy, as this can highlight areas where anchor text is not relevant or consistent. Additionally, checking for orphaned pages with no internal links to them without being a deliberate strategy for paid advertising or user testing is a good idea.
Ultimately, internal linking is beneficial because it helps search engines understand your site structure and spreads authority between pages, improving rankings and user navigation.
It’s also important to check for orphaned pages – pages that have no internal links pointing to them. Unless this is intentional (examples include paid for landing pages, A/B testing, or gated content), orphaned pages can struggle to get indexed. They receive little to no authority and as such perform badly in organic search.
Example:
5 different blog posts link to two separate pages using the same anchor text. With the split in referring URLs but the same anchor text, search engines may struggle to determine which page on your website is most authoritative for that topic.
Redirections or Deindexing
Not to be taken lightly, both 301 redirects or noindex/deindex instructions should be done only when a page has no unique value or is clearly not performing and causing problems with other pages on the website.
- 301 redirect – a permanent redirect that sends users and search engines from one URL to another, passing most of the original page’s SEO value to the new destination.
- noindex tag – this is a meta robots tag placed in the <head> section of the HTML of an individual page. it tells search engines to not show the page in search results and to not index it. sometimes also called “deindexing” as “noindex” tag will also apply to previously indexed pages and over time cause them to become unindexed.
If you have put same-domain canonical tags in place already, adding deindex tags to those seconrary pages can be a good secondary solution to ensuring the secondary pages don’t cause issues with indexing or duplicate content.
Example: 301 redirect
You have two blog posts:
- /blog-1
- /blog-2
Both target the same keywords and topic, and they compete in search results. Merging them into one stronger, comprehensive guide consolidates authority, backlinks, and rankings into one primary page, thus eliminating cannibalisation.
Check to ensure both pages are still indexed; if so, use Analytics to see which is most visited. Ensure all valuable content from both pages is present in one comprehensive document which you can then upload to which URL has the most sessions. Finally, implement a 301 redirect from the lesser visited URL to the most visited; /blog-2 redirects to /blog-1 for example.
Example: noindex tag
You have a main category page and a second category that is filtered by price low-high. This generates 2 URLs with the same content. Both URLs are indexable and competing for the same keywords.
Instead of redirecting (because the filtered page is still useful for users), you add a noindex tag to the one that has the filter, keeping both pages accessible to users but preventing them from competing in search results.
Creating Clarity for Search Engines and Users
The solution for keyword cannibalisation lies in clarity and structure. Consolidating overlapping content, implementing 301 redirects where necessary, using canonical tags correctly, differentiating search intent and strengthening your internal linking strategy all help search engines understand your website hierarchy and topical focus.
Ultimately, every primary page on your website should serve a distinct purpose and target a clear intent. When your content strategy is structured intentional and technically sound, you not only prevent keyword cannibalisation but you also strengthen your overall SEO performance improves user navigation and increase conversion potential.
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