Q: My pillar and one cluster page both target almost the same head term. They keep swapping in rankings. What

Q: My pillar and one cluster page both target almost the same head term. They keep swapping in rankings. What happened?

Short answer: keyword cannibalization — you built two pages chasing the same intent, and they're splitting signals instead of one winning cleanly.

This usually happens when a cluster article drifts too broad and starts overlapping the pillar's job. Google can't decide which to rank, so it alternates, and neither gets the full authority it could.

In practice:
— Decide which page owns the head term (usually the pillar) and which owns a narrower angle.
— Re-scope the cluster page to a more specific subtopic and intent.
— Change its title, H1, and on-page focus to match the narrower angle.
— Make the cluster page link up to the pillar for the broad term.

The test: each page in your cluster should have one distinct primary query no other page is also chasing.

Got a cannibalization question? Send it in.