The short answer: give every page on your site one main search to win. When two pages chase the same search, Google has to pick one, and often neither does well. Merge pages that do the same job and redirect the old one.
This is episode 2 of SEO in 60 seconds, our series of one fix per episode for small business websites. The full series sits in our on page SEO basics overview.
Why do two pages chasing one search cause problems?
When pages on your site cover the same thing, Google groups them and picks one to show. Its guidance calls this choosing the canonical page: the one it judges most complete and useful. That might not be the page you’d pick.
In the accounts we see, the signals get split too. Links, clicks and content are spread across 2 weak pages instead of 1 strong one. A common example is a service page and a blog post both trying to rank for the same thing.
How do you make a page map?
- Open a spreadsheet with 2 columns: Page and Main search.
- List the pages that matter: your home page, each service page, any location pages and your best blog posts.
- Next to each page, write the one search it should win, in the words your customers use.
- Look for repeats. Two pages with the same main search are competing.
- Fix each clash. Pages doing the same job get merged. Pages doing different jobs get their own search, with titles and headings to match.
What does a page map look like?
For an example kitchen fitter in Galway:
| Page | Main search |
|---|---|
| Home | kitchen fitters galway |
| Kitchen prices | fitted kitchen prices galway |
| Showroom | kitchen showroom galway |
| Blog: choosing worktops | quartz vs granite worktops |
If a second page called “Kitchen fitting” also targeted “kitchen fitters galway”, that’s the clash. Merge the weaker page into the stronger one.
How do you merge two pages in WordPress?
- Move anything useful from the weaker page into the stronger one.
- Unpublish the weaker page.
- Add a 301 redirect from the old address to the stronger page. A plugin such as Redirection does this, or Yoast Premium has it built in.
- Update any internal links that pointed at the old address.
Google treats a permanent redirect as a signal that the target page should be the one it shows.
What are the common mistakes?
- A blog post and a service page chasing the same search. Point the post at a question instead, and link it to the service page.
- Town pages with only the name swapped. If the content is near identical, Google treats them as near duplicates.
- Deleting a page without a redirect. Visitors and links hit a dead end.
Read the transcript
“One page, one main search. When two of your pages chase the same search, Google has to pick one. And often, neither does well. So make a simple page map. List your pages and give each one a main search to win. Two pages doing the same job? Merge them and redirect the other one. More SEO tips every week. Follow for episode 3, title tags vs H1s.”
Want a hand?
Running Google Ads too? Sending each ad to the right page works the same way. Our SEM in 60 seconds episode on landing pages goes out on 10 November.
Rather we did it for you? Book a free 20 minute call.
Sources
- What is canonicalization, Google Search Central. Checked 27 October 2026.
- Redirects and Google Search, Google Search Central. Checked 27 October 2026.
Previous episode: title tags. Next episode: title tag vs H1. Back to the series overview.