Checks / Links, canonical and speed
Canonical points to a broken or redirecting URL
The canonical tells crawlers to index a URL that errors or redirects, so neither page is indexed reliably.
canonical_broken · Links, canonical and speed · Error
What triggers it
The address a page's canonical link points to answers 400 or higher, does not answer, or redirects.
What to change
Point the canonical at the final URL that answers 200, usually the page itself.
Example
HTML to put in the page:
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/shoes/blue-trail">How to confirm the fix
- Open the canonical URL: it loads with 200 and no redirect
- Run a new crawl
How common it is
We have not measured how common this is on a sample of sites. Counts appear here when a study covers it.
About this check
| Check ID | canonical_broken |
|---|---|
| Report section | Links, canonical and speed |
| Severity | Error |
| How it is decided | Measured: read directly from the page or the server's response. |
| Added | Version 3, 19 October 2026 |
| Status | Measured in every report |
| Report gives the code | No, the fix is described in words |
Related checks
- Address variants of real pages return 404
- Broken internal links
- Redirect loop
- Canonical points to a noindex page
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