SEO Case Studies › Fixing 100-Page Cannibalisation
Case Study: Fixing 100-Page Cannibalisation
A content-heavy site with 4 years of publishing history had accumulated over 100 pages competing against each other across 12 topic areas. Google was splitting authority across all of them — and ranking none of them strongly.
+147% impressions in 45 days
After structural consolidation and redirect architecture
The Problem
The site had published content consistently for 4 years without a structural plan. Each writer produced posts on whatever felt relevant. The result was 12 topic areas with between 6-15 pages each, all targeting overlapping intent. Google had no clear signal about which page to rank for any given query.
The Diagnosis
Structural audit identified:
- • 47 direct cannibalisation pairs (same exact intent, multiple URLs)
- • 31 indirect conflicts (overlapping intent at different buyer journey stages)
- • 22 orphan pages receiving no internal links
- • 0 pillar pages — all content was flat, with no authority hierarchy
The Fix
Over 3 weeks, the structural fix plan was executed:
- • 47 direct pairs consolidated: 28 merges, 19 redirects
- • 31 indirect conflicts differentiated with distinct intent framing
- • 12 pillar pages created from the top-performing pages in each topic area
- • Internal linking rebuilt to connect every cluster page to its pillar
- • Orphan pages either connected into architecture or redirected
The Outcome
Within 45 days of completing the consolidation, Google Search Console showed a 147% increase in impressions across the affected topic areas. Clicks increased 89%. Three pillar pages entered the top 5 for their target queries after previously not appearing in the top 20.