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SEO finding

The canonical tag is missing, empty, repeated or not an absolute URL

SEO Warning Severity: Medium

Part of the audit Canonical tags. Finding id: seo.canonicalTag.

What it costs you

The canonical tag tells search engines which address of a page to index. Without a clear one they choose themselves, and tracking parameters or other variants can end up in search results.

What to do

Print exactly one canonical tag in the head, with the full address of the page starting with https://.

What it checks

  • No preferred address set
  • Preferred address is blank
  • More than one preferred address
  • Preferred address is not a full URL

How to fix it

Print one absolute canonical in the head

  1. Build the href from the page's own address: protocol, host and path, without tracking parameters.
  2. If two canonical tags appear, find the second source (theme, plugin or tag manager) and remove one.

How to check: View the source: exactly one link rel=canonical whose href starts with https://.