Cannibalization often hides other problems

John Mueller said that "keyword cannibalization" is not really an SEO problem in itself, and that it is often a poor label used to hide other real causes of poor page performance. Indeed, the term is vague and does not denote anything very specific on its own. Several pages can appear for the same query without that necessarily being negative.

For example, if three pages appear in the same SERP, that's rather an opportunity to occupy more space. In short, John Mueller invites SEOs to abandon the concept of cannibalization and focus on more concrete and measurable issues: relevance, clarity, internal linking, and real user value.

Source: Search Engine Journal

If a cannibalization issue often hides another problem (too similar content, lack of hierarchy, poor internal linking…), the trend can negatively impact a site's visibility (dilution of backlink value, presence of underperforming pages in the SERP…).

Goossip #2

A sudden drop in impressions in Search Console is normal

Since the Google's removal of the display of 100 results per page (&num=100), many sites have noticed a sharp drop in their impressions in Google Search Console and an automatic improvement in their average position, particularly on desktop. The reason given is that ranking tools that used this parameter were artificially inflating impressions via automated queries, skewing the data reported in Search Console. Google now filters out these non-human impressions, which makes the numbers much closer to reality for actual users.

John Mueller commented on this humorously on Bluesky (" Perhaps the real impressions were the friends we made along the way "), suggesting that many of those impressions were not real.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Even if some third-party ranking tools are affected by Google's decision, there is no need to panic: real traffic and organic visibility are not impacted, and Search Console reports gain reliability, which can produce fairly abrupt changes.