Detect cannibalized keywords and competing pages with Google Search Console

Find Cannibalized Pages (Google Search Console)

This n8n template helps you detect page cannibalization in Google Search Console (GSC): situations where multiple pages on your site rank for the same query and more than one page gets clicks. Use it to spot competing URLs, consolidate content, improve internal linking, and protect your CTR/rankings.

Good to know

• Data source: Google Search Console Search Analytics (Dimensions: query, page).
• Scope: Defaults to last 12 months and up to 10,000 rows per run (adjustable).
• Logic: Keeps only queries with >1 page and where the second page has clicks > 0 → higher confidence of true cannibalization.
• Privacy: Template ships with a placeholder property (sc-domain:example.com) and a neutral credential name; replace both after import.
• Cost: n8n nodes used here are free. GSC usage is also free (subject to Google limits).

How it works

1. Manual Start — run the workflow on demand.
2. Google Search Console — fetch last 12 months of query–page rows.
3. Summarize — group by query, building two arrays:
   • appended_page[] → all pages seen for that query
   • appended_clicks[] → clicks for each page-query row (aligned with appended_page)
4. Filter — pass only queries where:
   • count_query > 1 (more than one page involved), and
   • appended_clicks[1] > 0 (the second page also received clicks)
5. Output — list of cannibalized queries with the competing pages and their click counts.

Example output

{
  "query": "best running shoes",
  "appended_page": [
    "https://example.com/blog/best-running-shoes",
    "https://example.com/guide/running-shoes-2025"
  ],
  "appended_clicks": [124, 37],
  "count_query": 3
}

How to use

1. Import the JSON into n8n.
2. Open the Google Search Console node and:
   • Connect your Google Search Console OAuth2 credential.
   • Replace siteUrl with your property (sc-domain:your-domain.com).
3. Press Execute Workflow on Manual Start.
4. Review the output — focus on queries where the second page has meaningful clicks.

💡 Tip: If your site is large, start with a shorter date range (e.g., 90 days) or raise rowLimit.

Requirements

• Access to the target property in Google Search Console.
• One Google Search Console OAuth2 credential in n8n.

Customising this workflow

• More robust detection: In the Summarize node, change clicks aggregation from append to sum. Then filter for “at least 2 pages with sum_clicks > 0” to avoid any dependency on row order.
• Scoring & sorting: Add a Code/Function node to sort competing pages by clicks or impressions and compute click-share per page.
• Deeper analysis: Include impressions and position in the GSC node and extend the summary to prioritize fixes (e.g., high impressions + split clicks).
• Reporting: Send results to Google Sheets or export a CSV; create a dashboard of top cannibalized queries.
• Thresholds: Expose minimum click thresholds as workflow variables (e.g., second page clicks ≥ 3) to reduce noise.

Troubleshooting

• Empty results: Widen date range, increase rowLimit, or temporarily relax the filter (remove the second-page click condition to validate data flow).
• No property data: Ensure you used sc-domain: vs. https:// property format correctly and that your user has GSC access.
• Credential issues: Reconnect the OAuth2 credential and reauthorize if needed.