Decide by whether a single SERP serves both intents: keep one page when the two intents are close enough that Google rewards a single hybrid result, which is rare, and split into two pages when the intents are distinct enough that one page cannot satisfy both without diluting each. The SERP and the dilution risk make the call, not your preference for fewer pages. The tempting assumption that one well-built page can cover everything ignores that Google ranks per query and per intent, so a page hedging across two real intents often satisfies neither as well as a focused page would.
The signal to look for is what the SERPs themselves show. Search both queries and compare the top results. If the same pages rank for both, and those pages clearly serve both purposes at once, Google is telling you a hybrid works here, and one page is the right move. If the two SERPs are populated by different pages of different types, Google is telling you these are separate jobs that separate pages do best, and trying to merge them fights the verdict the results already deliver.
The dilution risk is the other half of the test. When two intents are genuinely distinct, say an informational explainer and a transactional buying page, a single page that tries to teach and sell ends up doing each at half strength. It buries the buying path under explanation for the transactional searcher and buries the explanation under sales cues for the informational one. Each visitor wades through material aimed at the other, and the page’s focus, the thing that makes it competitive for either query, blurs. Splitting lets each page be sharp.
The rare hybrid is worth naming so you do not split reflexively. Some query pairs are so close, and their SERPs so overlapping, that one page satisfies both without strain, and splitting would just create two thin near-duplicates competing with each other. When the SERP rewards the hybrid, honor it.
So before you merge two intents onto one page, search both queries and check whether a single SERP, and a single page type, genuinely serves both. If it does, build the one hybrid page. If the SERPs diverge or the intents pull the page in two directions, split them, because a focused page on each intent beats one page splitting its attention.