Are different pages making the same promise?
It finds groups of distinct pages whose title subjects overlap after several exclusions.
What Check Engine measures
The test excludes the homepage, empty titles and pages with an unambiguous canonical pointing elsewhere. At least 2 usable pages and at least 2 meaningful target words per title are required. Candidate pairs need at least 2 shared meaningful words and an overlap of at least 0.5, calculated as shared title words divided by all distinct title words in the pair. Guards separate products, listings, events, named places, distinct measurements, series entries, section indexes and other distinct subjects before groups are formed. For example, titles sharing fewer than 2 meaningful words cannot form a candidate pair.
This comparison uses titles and page context from indexable pages. It is not the body-text duplicate check and does not read search query or ranking data.
How to read the result
Groups with different titles produce a medium-severity finding. Identical titles are left to the duplicate-title check. The exclusions are substantial, so a pair sharing ordinary words can still be correctly left out when the pages serve distinct purposes.
Why it matters
Title overlap can point to pages that promise the same answer. It cannot prove that the pages compete in search, and merging useful pages without reading them could remove a distinction that a short title failed to express.
How to fix it
Read the grouped pages side by side. Make distinct purposes clear in their titles and content. Merge only pages that truly duplicate the same job, then update links and redirects where appropriate. Preserve location, product and series differences when they are useful to visitors, even if some words overlap.
Pages competing for the same search
What we found in field audits
Problems in Content quality were found on 14 of the 14 sites we audited. These are area totals. Read the field-audit method.
Method note
backend/seo_engine/checks/content.py, competing_pages, revision 0bb8e8d3.
Common questions
How many shared title words can make pages candidates for overlap?
A candidate pair needs 2 shared meaningful words or more, then meet the overlap limit. Other guards can still keep distinct subjects apart.
Can different products with similar titles be excluded from competing-page groups?
Yes. The guards separate products and other distinct subjects before grouping. Shared ordinary words alone do not settle page purpose.
Does the competing-pages check use search rankings?
No. It compares titles and page context without reading ranking data. Read the pages before deciding to merge them.