We spend a lot of our time diagnosing ranking problems on clients’ websites. This month we found one on our own.
Our SEO Sussex page was sitting around position 40 for the search “seo sussex”. Our Local SEO Sussex page was ranking around position 10 for the same search. The two pages cover different services, but Google was treating them as two answers to the same question.
What Is Keyword Cannibalisation?
Keyword cannibalisation, also spelled keyword cannibalization, happens when two or more pages on the same site target the same search. Google usually wants to show one page from a site for a given search, so it has to choose. Sometimes it swaps between them, and often neither page ranks as well as one clear page would.
It isn’t a penalty. It’s a sign that your site isn’t making it clear which page answers which question.
What It Looked Like in Search Console
The clearest sign was the two pages taking turns.
- In mid-April 2026, our local SEO page fell from around position 15 to between 45 and 55. Over the same days, our SEO page rose from around 33 to around 19.
- On 19 May, they swapped back.
- At the end of May, they flipped again for two days.
- From June, Google settled on the local SEO page, which reached roughly positions 6 to 10 in August and September. The SEO page stayed between 30 and 42.
Over the three months to early October, the local page averaged position 10.6 for “seo sussex”, while the SEO page averaged position 36.
When two of your pages take turns ranking, Google is telling you it can’t tell them apart.
Why Google Confused Them
Local SEO and SEO are different services. Local SEO is about the map pack, your Google Business Profile and reviews. SEO covers technical work, content and links for the main search results. Our pages didn’t make that difference clear enough.
- Both pages had two almost identical FAQs.
- Our SEO page talked about ranking in particular towns, which is local SEO territory.
- Our first set of Sussex blog posts all linked to the local page, so it built up more internal links.
- Google shows a map pack for “seo sussex”, which tells us it reads the search as local.
A Bigger Version: Cannibalisation on an Ecommerce Site
Two competing pages are easy to spot. On larger sites, the problem multiplies. One of our clients, a packaging company, has more than 700 product pages for boxes, plus category pages and blog posts. With that many pages covering similar products, some overlap is hard to avoid.
On ecommerce sites, we usually find one of three causes:
- Filtered pages compete with category pages. A colour filter on a gift box category can compete with a separate black gift boxes category, so a canonical tag should point the filtered view to the main category page.
- Product pages compete with category pages. A page for one large kraft gift box can compete with the kraft gift boxes category, so the category page should target the broader terms and the product page the specific, long-tail ones.
- Older pages target almost the same terms. Product pages and blog posts written over the years often overlap, so merge the weaker page into the stronger one with a 301 redirect, or change one to target a different need.
Internal links also tell Google which page is the main one. Link from blog posts and subcategories up to the main category and product pages with descriptive link text, and avoid linking competing pages to each other with the same anchor text.
Whatever you change, give it time. We track Search Console for four to eight weeks afterwards, looking for clicks and impressions to settle on the page we intended.
How Do You Find Keyword Cannibalisation?
- In Search Console, open the Performance report and filter by a search you care about.
- Switch to the Pages tab. If two or more of your pages appear for the same search, look closer.
- Filter by each page in turn and look at the chart over time. Pages that rise as the other falls are competing.
- Search the phrase yourself and see which of your pages Google shows.
How Do You Fix Keyword Cannibalisation?
There are two main fixes. If the pages are about the same thing, merge them into one strong page and redirect the weaker one. If they’re about different things, as ours are, make the difference obvious to Google.
For our pages, we removed the local SEO content from our SEO Sussex page, replaced the duplicate FAQs and gave each page its own set of supporting articles. This series of posts is part of that work, and we’ll keep watching the data to see how Google responds.
You can see what our SEO service in Sussex covers, and how it differs from our local SEO in Sussex.
Competing pages are one way a site holds itself back. Too many weak pages is another. In the next post, we look at content pruning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Keyword Cannibalisation Bad?
It can be. When Google can’t tell which of your pages to show, it may swap between them or rank neither as well as one clear page would. If two pages answer different questions and both rank well, there’s nothing to fix.
Is Keyword Cannibalisation a Google Penalty?
No. It isn’t a penalty or a breach of Google’s rules. It’s a sign that your site isn’t making clear which page should rank for which search.
Can Two of My Pages Rank for the Same Keyword?
Yes. Google sometimes shows two pages from the same site, usually when they meet different needs. Problems start when the pages are so similar that Google keeps switching between them.
Is There a Keyword Cannibalisation Checker?
Search Console is the best free starting point. Filter the Performance report by a search, then check the Pages tab for more than one of your pages. Paid tools such as Semrush and Ahrefs also have features that flag pages competing for the same keywords.
Sources
- Mouthy Marketing Google Search Console data, April to October 2026
- Search Console Help: Performance report