Definition

Keyword cannibalisation is the situation where two or more pages on the same site target effectively the same query or intent, so that Google has to choose between them and the signals — links, clicks, internal links — are divided rather than consolidated on a single page.

Google does not use the phrase 'keyword cannibalisation' in its official documentation; the underlying issue it describes is closest to what Google calls duplicate or near-duplicate content. Google's guidance on consolidating duplicate URLs explains that when several URLs cover the same content, signals to those URLs can be consolidated onto a single canonical page through redirects, `rel="canonical"` annotations, or sitemap signals. The same logic is applied by SEO practitioners to overlapping pages: merge, redirect, or canonicalise the duplicates so one page accumulates the ranking signals.

Examples

• Overlapping blog posts

  A site has two posts, 'Best wireless headphones 2025' and 'Top wireless headphones to buy in 2025', both targeting the same intent. They alternate in Google's results for the same query, and the team redirects the older one to the newer page to consolidate signals.

• Product and category page

  A category page for 'merino base layers' and a single product page both rank for the query 'merino base layer'. The team rewrites the product page to focus on the specific SKU and adds clearer internal links so the category page consistently wins the broader query.

Sources

• Google Search Central — Consolidate duplicate URLs with canonicals

Related terms

• Duplicate Content
  Substantively identical or very similar content that appears at more than one URL, either within a single site or across different sites.
• Canonical Tag
  An HTML element that tells search engines which URL is the master copy when the same or similar content exists at multiple addresses.
• Duplicate Titles
  Title tags that are identical or near-identical across multiple pages on the same site, making the pages hard to tell apart in search results.
• 301 Redirect
  A permanent redirect — an HTTP 301 status code telling clients and search engines that a URL has moved permanently to a new location.
• Internal Linking
  The practice of linking from one page on a site to another page on the same site. Helps users navigate and gives search engines more crawl paths.

Where QueryCatch uses this

• SEO Audit
• Google Search Performance