A missing canonical hands the choice to search engines
My pages do not declare a canonical URL. Is that a real problem, or is it only worth adding on duplicates?
Which checks surface this
- missing-canonical — pages that declare no canonical URL at all
- redirected-urls — URLs still being served that redirect elsewhere, blurring which version is canonical
- duplicate-description — a signal that several URLs are presenting the same content
Check ids: missing-canonical · redirected-urls · duplicate-description
A concrete example
A listing page that accepts ?sort= creates several URLs for the same content. Without a canonical, each one is free to be treated as its own page.
FAQ
- Is a self-referencing canonical redundant?
- No. It is an explicit statement that this URL is the canonical one. Leaving it out means nobody has stated it, which is a different situation.
- Which pages need one most?
- Pages reachable through more than one URL: anything with tracking parameters, sorting or filtering, pagination, print views, and case-variant paths.