"You have keyword cannibalization, merge the pages."

"You have keyword cannibalization, merge the pages."

Maybe. Maybe you have two pages doing different jobs. Diagnose before you demolish.

The checklist before merging anything:

— Pull the query in Search Console and check which URLs rank for it across the last 90 days. Two URLs flickering for one query is the actual symptom.
— Look at intent. "Title tag length" (informational) and "title tag generator" (tool) share words but not purpose. Don't merge those — that's not cannibalization, that's a healthy cluster.
— Real cannibalization is two pages both trying to be the definitive answer to the same query. That's when one steals the other's authority.
— Merge the weaker into the stronger, 301 the loser, update internal links pointing at the dead URL.
— Re-point external backlinks where you can. The redirect passes most of it; a direct link passes all of it.

Don't merge on a hunch. (Half the "cannibalization" I'm shown is just a site ranking twice for a broad term, which is good. You'd be deleting a second SERP slot.)