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What do we mean by cannibalisation in SEO?This unfortunate and often unnoticed problem harms the SEO potential of the pages involved. When more than one page has the same/similar keyword target, it creates "confusion" in the eyes of the search engine, resulting in a struggle to decide what page to rank for what term.
How serious of a problem is keyword cannibalisation?Much more than what you might think — almost every website that I have worked on in the past few years have some degree of cannibalisation that needs resolving. It is hard to estimate how much a single page might be held back by this issue, as it involves a group of pages whose potential is being limited. So, my suggestion is to treat this issue by analysing clusters of pages that have some degree of cannibalisation rather than single pages.
1) At meta data level: When two or more pages have meta data (title tags and headings mainly) which target the same or very similar keywords, cannibalisation occurs. This requires a less labour-intensive type of fix, as only meta data needs adjusting.
2) At page content level When cannibalisation occurs at page content level (meaning two or more pages tend to cover very similar topics in their body content), it normally needs more work than the above example, since it requires the webmaster to first find all the competing pages and then decide on the best approach to tackle the issue.
Scenario 1In the instances where both pages have really high rankings on the first page of the SERPS, this could work in your advantage: More space occupied means more traffic for your pages, so treat it as "good" cannibalisation.
Scenario 2In the instances where page A has high rankings page one of the SERPS and page B is nowhere to be seen (beyond the top 15–20 results), it is up to you to decide if this minor cannibalisation is worth your time and resources, as this may not be an urgency.
Scenario 3In the instances where both pages are ranking in page two or three of the SERP, then it might be the case that your cannibalisation is holding one or both of them back.
2) Two or more landing pages on your website that are flip-flopping for the same keywordIt could be the case that, for instance, the keyword "ankle boots" for two of my pages are ranking at different times, as Google seems to have a difficult time deciding which page to choose for the term.
When did this flip-flopping start? Pinpointing the right moment in time where this all began might help you understand how the problem originated in the first place. Maybe a canonical tag occurred or went missing, maybe some changes to your on-page elements or an algorithm update mixed things up?
How many pages flip-flop between each other for the same keyword?The fewer pages subject to volatility, the better and easier to address. Try to identify which pages are involved and inspect all elements that might have triggered this instability.
How often do these pages flip-flop?Try and find out how often the ranking page for a keyword has changed: the fewer times, the better. Cross reference the time of the changes with your knowledge of the site in case it might have been caused by other adjustments.
How to identify which pages are victims of cannibalisationI will explain what tools I normally use to detect major cannibalisation fluxes, but I am sure there are several ways to reach the same results — if you want to share your tips, please do comment below!
Tools to deploy for type 1 of cannibalisation: When two of more landing pages are competing for the same keywordI know we all love tools that help you speed up long tasks, and one of my favourites is Ahrefs. I recommend using their fantastic method which will find your 'cannibals' in minutes.
Tools to deploy for Type 2 of cannibalisation: When two or more landing pages are flip-flopping for the same keywordIdeally, most rank tracking tools will be able to do this functionally discover when a keyword has changed ranking URL over time. Back in the day I used tracking tools like Linkdex and Pi Datametrics to do just this.
Google Data Studio DashboardIf you're looking for a speedier approach, you can build a Google Data Studio dashboard that connects to your GSC to provide data in real time, so you don't have to check on your reports when you think there is a cannibalisation issue (credit to my colleague Dom).
What solutions should I implement to tackle cannibalisation?It is important to distinguish the different types of cannibalisation you may encounter and try to be flexible with solutions — not every fix will be the same.
301 redirectionAsk yourself this question: do I really need all the pages that I found cannibalising each other?
CanonicalisationIn case you do need all the pages that are cannibalising for whatever reason (maybe PPC, social, or testing purposes, or maybe it is just because they are still relevant) then canonical tags are your friends. The main difference with a 301 redirect is that both pages will still exist, while the equity from page A will be transferred to page B.
Let's say you created a new article that covers a similar topic to another existing one (but has a different angle) and you find out that both pages are cannibalising each other. After a quick analysis, you may decide you want Page B to be your "primary", so you can use a canonical tag from page A pointing to page B. You would want to use canonicalisation if the content of the two pages is diverse enough that users should see it but not so much that search engines should think it's different.
Pages re-optimisationAs already touched on, it primarily involves a metadata type of cannibalisation, which is what I named as type 1 in this article. After identifying the pages whose meta data seem to overlap or somehow target the same/highly similar keywords, you will need to decide which is your primary page for that keyword/keyword group and re-optimise the competing pages.
Content consolidationThis type of solution involves consolidating a part or the entire content of a page into another. Once that has happened, it is down to you to decide if it is worth keeping the page you have stripped content from or just 301 redirect it to the other.
How can I avoid cannibalisation in the first place?The best way to prevent cannibalisation from happening is a simple, yet underrated task, that involves keyword mapping. Implementing a correct mapping strategy for your site is a key part of your SEO, as important as your keyword research.
Don't take 'intent' for grantedAnother way to avoid cannibalisation, and the last tip I want to share with you, involves something most of you are familiar with: search intent.
ConclusionKeyword cannibalisation is an underrated, but rather significant, problem, especially for sites that have been running for several years and end up having lots of pages. However, fear not — there are simple ways to monitor this issue and hopefully this post can help you speed up the whole process to find such instances.