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Two URLs competing for one search phrase, and both lose.

Keyword cannibalisation is when two or more of your pages compete for the same search and Google can’t settle on one. Instead of one strong result you get two weak ones, taking turns.

How it usually happens

The classic version starts with a page that already ranks. Often it’s the homepage, sitting near the top for your main phrase. Then someone follows the standard advice: every keyword deserves its own dedicated page. So a service page goes up for that phrase.

Now Google has two of your pages for one search. The old one has years of clicks behind it. The new one has none. They swap places, both slip, and the position you had with one page is better than anything either of them gets now.

If your homepage used to rank for a phrase and doesn’t any more, this is the first thing I check.

It isn’t duplicate content

Google is good at spotting two copies of the same page. It picks one and tells you so in Search Console (“Duplicate, Google chose different canonical”). That is not the problem.

Cannibalisation comes from pages that are different but mean the same thing: synonyms, a “best” and a “top” version of the same title, “colour” and “color”, a blog post and a service page on one topic. Nothing flags them as duplicates, so nothing warns you. They quietly end up competing for the same search and block each other.

What it looks like

• A page jumping around week to week, say between position 15 and 70.
• Search Console showing several of your URLs for one query, none of them holding a position.
• A homepage that dropped for its main phrase soon after a new page went up for it.
• More than two pages. Look at every URL that gets impressions for the query, not just the pair you suspect.

Why the usual fixes disappoint

The usual advice is to pick a winner, redirect the others, add a canonical and tidy up internal links. Sometimes that’s enough. Often it isn’t, for two reasons.

First, canonicals, meta tags and anchor text are hints. Google weighs them; it doesn’t have to obey them. A hint is too weak to undo a choice Google has already made.

Second, history. The page that ranked before has a record of being clicked in that spot. A new page has none, and it’s very hard to earn clicks from a position you don’t hold. Moving a ranking from one page to another can be done, but it’s slow and it’s never free.

What I’d do

1. Ask whether it needs fixing at all. If one of your pages already ranks well for the phrase and the traffic turns into customers, you have it. Often the cheapest fix is to take the newer page out of that fight (redirect it, or aim it at a different search) and let the original keep the phrase.
2. If the ranking really has to move, force it. Take the old page out of the running for a while and stop linking to it with that phrase. Point strong, relevant links at the page you want instead. Expect weeks, not days.
3. If both pages are stuck, start clean. Take both out of the index and republish the content once, under a new URL and title that don’t collide with anything else. It feels drastic. It is often faster than months of nudging.
4. Don’t delete pages that still get clicks. A page with a few clicks is doing work for the rest of the site. Keep it until another page has clearly taken over its searches.

How to avoid it

Before writing a new page, look the phrase up in Search Console. If one of your pages already gets impressions for it, you don’t need a new page; you need to improve or support the one you have. A new page should go after a search none of your pages answer yet, not a new wording of one they already do.