Canonical tag issues and their fixes

[megri]

Here is the updated list of canonical tag issues:

• Canonical points to 4XX

• Canonical points to 5XX

• Canonical points to redirect

• Canonical URL has no incoming internal links

• Canonical URL has no incoming internal links

• Duplicate pages without canonical

• Hreflang to non-canonical

• Non-canonical page in sitemap

• Non-canonical page specified as canonical one

• Open Graph URL not matching canonical

• Canonical from HTTPS to HTTP

• Canonical from HTTP to HTTPS

• Canonical URL changed

• Non-canonical page receives organic traffic

• Missing canonical tag

• Multiple canonical tags

• Canonical tag points to a non-indexable page

• Canonical tag points to a page with a different content

• Canonical tag is not self-referential

• Canonical tag is not consistent across page versions

[megri]

• Canonical points to 4XX: Replace dead (4XX) canonical links with working (200) pages.

• Canonical points to 5XX: Replace erroneous canonical URLs with valid URLs and check for server misconfigurations.

• Canonical points to redirect: Replace canonical links with direct links to the most authoritative version of the page.

• Canonical URL has no incoming internal links: Replace internal links to canonicalized pages with direct links to the canonical.

• Canonical URL has no incoming internal links: Ensure canonical pages are easily accessible through website navigation and link architecture.

• Duplicate pages without canonical: Specify a canonical version across all duplicates and add a self-referencing canonical tag.

• Hreflang to non-canonical: Replace links in hreflang annotations with canonical URLs.

• Non-canonical page in sitemap: Remove non-canonical URLs from the sitemap.

• Non-canonical page specified as canonical one: Replace non-canonical links in canonical tags with direct links to the canonical.

• Open Graph URL not matching canonical: Ensure the URL specified in og:url matches the URL of the canonical page.

• Canonical from HTTPS to HTTP: Redirect the HTTP page to the HTTPS equivalent or add a rel=“canonical” link.

• Canonical from HTTP to HTTPS: Implement a 301 redirect from HTTP to HTTPS and replace internal links.

• Canonical URL changed: Review affected pages and ensure changes are intentional.

• Non-canonical page receives organic traffic: Check rel=canonical tags and use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console to investigate.