Guides · Search

What a canonical link is and how to set it

The same page can often be opened at several addresses. One may start with www and another without it. A link from an email may add a tracking tag to the end.

A search engine may treat these as separate pages, and links from other sites may then be spread across them. A canonical link is one line of code that names the address you want treated as the main one. Google treats it as a strong signal, and it can still choose another address.

What your report means

• No preferred address: we found no canonical link in the HTML your site sent. A link added later by a script is not counted.
• Incomplete: the link uses a short form such as /about. Google supports this but advises the full address.
• More than one: the page has two or more canonical links. Google has said it will likely ignore all of them.
• Another address: the link names a different address from the page you scanned.

Another address can be correct. On Shopify, a product opened through a collection often points to its plain product address. It is a mistake if an ordinary page points to your home page, an old domain or a test site.

A trailing slash alone does not trigger this finding. A tracking tag does, so scan the plain address if you scanned one with a tag.

How to fix it

The finished line goes in the page's head section and looks like this:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/about">

• WordPress: Yoast and Rank Math normally add this line for you. Each has a Canonical URL field in the Advanced section for each page. Rank Math may need its advanced mode turned on. Clear a wrong value to go back to the page's own address. Two SEO plugins, or a plugin and a theme, may each print a link, so keep one source.
• Shopify: themes usually print the link. A developer can look for the canonical line in theme.liquid and check whether an app adds a second one.
• Wix: each page gets a link to its own address, and Wix advises keeping that default. A custom value is in the page's advanced SEO settings, along with a reset option.
• Squarespace: the link is added for you. If you see two, check Code Injection for a line someone added by hand.

Google suggests a redirect where one is possible, because it sends visitors and search engines to the main address. For a developer or host, ask for this: "Print one canonical link on every page, with the full https address, and redirect the other versions to it."

Find the link in your page source

1. Open the page in a desktop browser.
2. Right-click and choose View page source.
3. Search the source for canonical.
4. Confirm there is one link, with the full address you want.
5. Press Rescan on your report to see the new result.