Check the website's canonical tag
Canonical URL Checker tool helps you check and analyze the canonical tag (rel=canonical) of any website online for free. The canonical tag is an important on-page SEO element that helps Google understand the official version of the page, avoid duplicate content issues, and concentrate link juice. Detect self-referencing, relative URL, query parameters errors in canonical.
Canonical tag (rel=canonical) is HTML tag located in <head> indicating that the official version (canonical version) of one web pang. When there are multiple URLs pointing to the same content (e.g. with /Don't trailing slash, http/https, with /Don't query parameters, www/non-www), Google can get confused and index the wrong version. Canonical tag solves this problem by telling Google: 'This is official URL, please index the URL If don't has the wrong canonical or canonical, you may encounter: Duplicate content issues - Google sees many similar pages. Distributed PageRank - link juice is divided among many URLs indexed - Google indexes bad URLs (with query params).
Canonical tag (rel=canonical) is an HTML tag placed in the <head>: <link rel='canonical' href='https://example.com/page'>. It tells search engines which URL is the official version of the page. When there are multiple URLs with the same content, canonical helps consolidate signals into a single URL.
Canonical URLs are important because: 1) Avoid duplicate content penalties - Google doesn't like multiple pages that are the same. 2) Focus link juice - backlinks to different URLs will benefit canonical URL. 3) Control indexing - you decide which URLs appear in search results. 4) Handle URL parameters - avoid Google indexing URLs with tracking params.
Self-referencing canonical is when the canonical tag points to the URL of the page itself. For example, the page example.com/page has canonical example.com/page. Google RECOMMENDS self-referencing canonical because it: Prevent duplicates from URL parameters, Clarify preferred URL version, Protect against scraping (scrapers copy canonical tag). Best practice: EVERY page should have self-referencing canonical.
ALWAYS use absolute URLs (starting with https://). Relative URLs (/page or page) can cause confusion, especially the page is accessed through multiple domains or protocols. Google may misinterpret relative canonical. Absolute URL ensures there is no ambiguity.
Should NOT. Canonical URL should be clean URL without query parameters (?utm_source=..., ?ref=...). Query params are often used for tracking and should not be the canonical version. If canonical contains params, you're probably canonicalizing the wrong URL.
Redirect (301/302) redirects users and bots to another URL - they don't see the original page. Canonical is a hint to search engines - users still see the original page, only search engines know which URL is preferred. Use redirects when you want to completely consolidate URLs. Use canonical when you need to keep both URLs accessible.
ARE NOT. Canonical is a hint, not a directive. Google may ignore canonical if: Content differs significantly between URLs. Canonical URL is not accessible. Canonical points to a page in a different domain (cross-domain canonical). There are conflicting signals (internal links, sitemap). Google will use judgment to choose canonical.
Common fixes: 1) Add canonical tag if missing. 2) Change relative to absolute URL. 3) Remove query params from canonical. 4) Make sure the URL is canonical accessible (no 404, no redirect). 5) Consistent canonical across pages. 6) Match canonical with URLs in sitemap and internal links.
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