Proportionate optimisation, control 3 of 8
O-03 Review intent overlap at site scope without blind consolidation
Assess the proposed page within the relevant site inventory before publication. Multiple URLs matching a topic, a similarity score or alternating rankings are diagnostic observations, not proof of spam or grounds for automatic consolidation.
- Priority
- Gate. A FAIL stops publish or launch.
- Hard gate
- Yes. A FAIL stops publication, whatever the score.
- Change class
- READ_ONLY: Inspect authorised evidence.
- Quality bucket
- Not scored: hard gate only
Evidence to review
- Candidate-bound query/intent/URL inventory, overlap decisions, available baseline evidence and explicit legitimate-exception records.
How to implement
- Inventory indexable resources, templates, locales and user tasks in the affected clusters; state coverage and missing data.
- Separate genuine alternative resources from tracking duplicates, translated/localised pages and low-value doorway candidates.
- Use intent, user function, original data, internal paths and available performance evidence to select coexist, improve, canonicalise or consolidate.
- Require a separately approved migration plan for destructive remedies; do not automatically noindex or cross-canonicalise distinct pages.
- Include nearby affected clusters in review when a shared template or navigation change reaches them.
How UltimateSEO checks this
Needs your evidence. No automated check covers this control, so it stays UNKNOWN until evidence is supplied.
States used: PASS, FAIL, UNKNOWN, NOT_APPLICABLE or BLOCKED. UNKNOWN is never shown as a pass. How states work.
Part of The UltimateSEO Framework v4.3, catalogue dated 2026-10-14. Evidence states, control states and the publish gate are explained on the hub.