Keyword cannibalisation

DefinitionKeyword cannibalisation is when several pages on your own site compete for the same search query, so none of them performs as well as one strong page would.

You spot it in Search Console when two or more of your URLs get impressions for the same query and swap positions. Fixes include merging pages, redirecting the weaker one, clarifying each page's focus and adjusting internal links and canonicals.

Learn it step by step

• Cannibalisation matrix (Google Search Console tools)

Related terms

• Canonical URL: A canonical URL is the version of a page you want search engines to treat as the main one when the same content is available at several URLs.
• Content decay: Content decay is a steady loss of clicks and impressions on a page that used to perform well, usually because it went out of date or competitors published something better.
• Internal link: An internal link is a link from one page on your site to another page on the same site.