cannibalisation

The Reality of Content Cannibalisation and Query Fan-Out in GEO

Many SEO practitioners now argue that content cannibalisation is less risky in the GEO era, given that LLMs use query fan-out to pull from multiple long-tail pages, even ones with significant semantic overlap. The strategy sounds efficient on paper: create 9-10 ultra-specific pages rather than consolidating into 3-4 broader ones. But 2026 data and real-world tests tell a different story. While AI Overviews do reward specificity and diverse angles, unchecked fragmentation with heavy overlap usually dilutes authority and citation potential. The smarter play, and the one the evidence actually supports, remains intentional intent separation backed by tight topical clustering.