Keyword Cannibalization
An SEO diagnosis for situations where multiple pages with substantially overlapping intent compete or create ambiguity about the preferred page.
Resolving genuine overlap can concentrate maintenance and authority, clarify the user journey and make each landing page's purpose more measurable.
Two near-duplicate service pages targeting the same need are consolidated into one canonical page, relevant content is merged, obsolete URLs are redirected and internal links are updated.
The term is not an official Google ranking concept, and multiple pages can legitimately rank for related queries. Redirecting or canonicalising without analysing intent, demand and value can remove useful coverage.
The issue is not simply that several URLs mention or rank for the same words. It arises when pages serve the same search need without a clear canonical purpose, fragment internal signals or cause unstable URL selection; diagnosis should compare intent, queries, content and internal linking.
Experience Design
Google Search Central — SEO link best practices — https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable; Google Search Central — Consolidate duplicate URLs — https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls; Search Engine Land — Keyword cannibalisation guide — https://searchengineland.com/guide/keyword-cannibalization