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Two or more of your own pages targeting the same query. The engine has to choose, the signals are split between them, and both typically rank below where a single page would.
It is self-inflicted, it is common, and it is usually invisible until somebody looks for it specifically.
A content plan built from a keyword list without checking what exists. A blog post covering the same ground as a product page. Two teams publishing independently.
At scale it is systematic: a plan producing many pages per topic will produce this reliably unless somebody is checking.
Ranking URLs alternating for one query over time. That is the clearest signal.
Merge unless the intents genuinely differ. Half-differentiating leaves both pages weak.
Usually just the affected queries, but at scale it suggests a planning process that will keep producing it.
Half an hour with your own data usually saves reading three of these. The guides will still be here afterwards.