Keyword cannibalization checker

Keyword cannibalization is when two or more pages on the same site target the same search query. Google picks one page to rank and the others compete with it rather than supporting it — so instead of one strong result you get two or three weaker ones, splitting clicks, links and authority that should have been concentrated.

Look for a query where more than one of your URLs takes impressions in Search Console, and watch whether the URL Google ranks changes over time. Two pages appearing for one search is a hint; Google alternating between them week to week is proof. Similarity between two pages, on its own, is only a suspicion.

No, and treating it that way is the most common mistake. Pages can cover related ground and serve genuinely different intents — a comparison page and a how-to guide on one topic can coexist perfectly well. It only becomes cannibalization when they compete for the same query, which is why evidence from Search Console matters more than a similarity percentage.

Usually by consolidating. Pick the page with the most internal links and the strongest history, move anything unique from the others into it, then redirect them to it. Where both pages deserve to exist, retarget one to a clearly different search intent and link it to the page that should own the shared query. Deleting without redirecting throws away the links those pages earned.

The one the rest of your site already points at. Internal links are a signal you have spent years building and they are expensive to move, so the page with the most inbound internal links is usually the keeper even when a competing page is longer or newer. Depth is the tiebreaker when internal links are even.

For the confirmed results, yes — those come from your own Search Console history, which is what makes them evidence rather than inference. The content-similarity half works without it and covers pages that are too new to have ranking data, but it is reported separately and labelled as the weaker signal.

Occasionally, and when it happens it is usually a site with enough authority to hold two positions for a broad query. For most sites it is a cost rather than a win: the second result takes a small share of clicks while diluting the signals that would have pushed the first result higher.

Duplicate content is about pages with substantially the same text. Cannibalization is about pages competing for the same search, which happens constantly between pages that share no sentences at all — a checklist, a guide and a comparison on one topic can read completely differently and still fight over one result.