Dublicate content problem

We have 4 pages having dublicate content problem. Keywords are:

1. Licensed betting sites
2. malta licensed betting sites
3. curacao lincensed betting sites
4. cyprus licensed betting sites

When we search on google for example “Malta licensed betting sites 2023” 1st page appears, but when searching without 2023, 2nd page appears. This kind of conflicts happens with different combinations within those 4 pages.

what’s the correct way to handle this conflicts? We are considering to merge all 4 pages into 1st page. Is there any other tested solution you might suggest?

thanks in advance

This does not sound like a duplicate content issue? Duplicate content would imply you have 4 identical pages. What you are saying is what Google sees as canonical URL suitable for "Malta licensed betting sites 2023" and is what you'd like to see for "Malta licensed betting sites" but they do not and offer another page.

What is the goal here? Show one that 1 specific page, or have all those 4 pages show up to their corresponding keywords? You'd need to elaborate a little bit more, before it can be analyzed on what the best approach is. Have you checked these pages with the URL inspection tool, to see what Google sees?

Assuming you're talking about cannibalization (and I'm pretty sure you are), there's some discussion here that will be relevant to you...

https://www.gpwa.org/forum/keyword-c...263153/p2.html

Without seeing the pages, this might be a little simplistic, but....


I'd first be looking at the 4 pages. Their (on-page and 'in the code') content, page name, H1, H2s. Could something there be 'confusing' the SE (As xecutable says, 'what does Google see').

Check inbound link anchor text, possible something there is giving a signal. Maybe in the way the 4 interlink (or not).


If the structure of the pages all look good and anchor text on links looks sound, and you want to maintain the 4 separate, then creating/getting some links with focused anchor text might help.

Ofc, merging might be the answer if no other 'simple' way works. Before doing that, I'd be looking at my chances of ever ranking for the top-level term against what I might be losing (in existing or potential ranking and traffic) for the other three if shifting them to one page dilutes their message.

As i checked the link above, issue is cannibalization. Thread opened in the given link is very helpfull. Thank you so much!

in the link they are talking about if the keywords “bet365 review” and subpages like “bet365 mobile app” make cannibalization. My keywords sharing long tail keywords in common(licensed betting sites) which is more obvious reason and harder to solve.

I think I will go with merging them all into one.

because earlier there was a keyword “mobile payment betting sites” and different combinations of that like “ android+ kw”, “ios+kw” , “Vodafone+kw” and so on. Competitors made pages for each and could rank for only one of them. I did one long page including all sub keywords within the page and ranked 1st for the main kw.

it’s only one example I had but if the visit duration is good for that single page it will rank well with other sub KWs as well.

You can bring it back into a content editor like surferseo and re-optimize it by adding more value.