You’re doing all the right things—publishing great content, building out service pages, staying consistent.
But… what if some of that effort is working against you?
Keyword cannibalization happens when multiple pages on your site unintentionally target the same topic or keyword—causing them to compete in search results.
And the worst part?
📉 It’s hard to see without knowing what to look for.
📉 It makes your rankings unpredictable.
📉 It drains your SEO momentum—even when your content is great.
What to watch for:
- Two blog posts ranking for the same keyword (but neither sticking)
- Multiple service pages that overlap in topic or audience
- Google showing different URLs for the same query in Google Search Console
- Even if your rankings look fine, this is often the reason your content isn’t gaining traction.
How to check for it in Google Search Console:
- Go to Google Search Console → Performance
- At the top of the report (above the graph), click “+ Add Filter”
- Select Query
- Type in the keyword you want to investigate
- After filtering, click on the Pages tab below the graph to see all the URLs showing for that keyword
If you see multiple URLs listed for that one keyword?
…And if Google keeps switching which one shows up?
That’s cannibalization in action!
