What was done

Resumed the Lexington SEO handoff (PR #27, branch claude/lexington-lawyer-seo-swarm-OL09e). Sam answered the open canonical decision, overriding the handoff's recommendations with two pages he has already built out:

• Canonical CAR page: /car-accident-attorneys-in-lexington/
• Canonical PI (broad) page: /locations/lexington/

Verified both pages live (web fetch) and pulled authoritative GSC data (project 9708957, 2026-03-01 to 05-31, all Lexington URLs).

Both chosen pages are well-built and indexed

Good titles/meta/H1, current content, internal links, trust signals, FAQ. The car page was modified 2026-06-01; PI page 2026-05-24. The 8 Google Ads repointed last session already point at the chosen car canonical, so ads are aligned.

Cannibalization is real and now quantified (GSC, 90 days)

Four URLs compete for Lexington car/accident intent:

• /lex-cases/lexington-auto-accident/ — 7,951 imp, pos 13.9, 255 kw (impression leader; top kw "lexington car accident injury attorneys")
• /lexington/ — 1,180 imp, pos 29.8, 115 kw (broad "lexington accident attorneys")
• /car-accident-attorneys-in-lexington/ (CHOSEN car canonical) — 1,066 imp, pos 32.6, 76 kw, 0 clicks
• /locations/lexington/ (CHOSEN PI canonical) — only 14 imp, pos 26.3, top kw "lexington car wreck lawyer" (car intent)

Spokes ranking decently (keep + link to hub, do NOT redirect): motorcycle 1,881 imp/pos 11, wrongful death 680/pos 11, depo-provera 589, lyft 370, truck 256/pos 11.6, atv 155, dog bite 132, dram shop 131, pedestrian 126/pos 12.9, uber 58/pos 6.6.

The tension to resolve (why session paused)

Sam's chosen car canonical (1,066 imp, pos 32.6) is materially weaker than the duplicate /lex-cases/lexington-auto-accident/ (7,951 imp, pos 13.9). Honoring his choice means 301-ing the 7.5x-stronger, 19-positions-better page INTO the weaker one — real risk of a ranking dip. Also /locations/lexington/ is currently written as a CAR page (H1 "Lexington Car Accident?", FAQ "motor vehicle crashes only"), so it cannot serve as the broad-PI hub without a content reposition. Both are live-system actions needing Sam's sign-off before execution.

Recommended next actions

1. Confirm redirect direction given the data (options presented inline as MC). Recommended hybrid: make /car-accident-attorneys-in-lexington/ the canonical per Sam, but add a canonical/redirect bridge so the lex-cases equity transfers cleanly; OR keep lex-cases live and canonical-tag it to Sam's page first, monitor, then 301.
2. Reposition /locations/lexington/ to true broad-PI intent (slip/fall, premises, wrongful death, dog bite, med-mal) so it stops competing with the car page.
3. Build single-hop Rank Math redirect map; keep /lex-cases/ spokes and internal-link them to the hub.