<b>Q: My cluster pages keep cannibalizing each other. How do I stop it?</b>

<b>Q: My cluster pages keep cannibalizing each other. How do I stop it?</b>

Short answer: cannibalization means two pages target the same intent, so the fix is to give each page one distinct job. The engine flip-flops between them because it genuinely can't tell which one you meant to answer the query.

Diagnose it by pulling the queries each page ranks for. If two pages show up for the same query and both bounce around positions 5 to 12, that's the conflict.

The fix is one of three moves: merge the two pages into the stronger URL and redirect, re-scope one page to a clearly different sub-question, or consolidate both into the pillar if neither deserves its own page.

In practice: every page in a cluster should answer a question no other page answers. Write the one-sentence job of each page; if two sentences sound alike, you found your conflict.

Send your cannibalization cases in.