Duplicate pages without canonical issue means that website has pages with identical contents without the link tag with the rel=canonical attribute value.
The Importance of the Issue
Duplicated content degrades the pages’ value, leading to degrading text relevance and making the search engine waste crawling budget and choose the best page among two identical ones. This may lead to the ranking decrease of the main landing page, as well as to negative user experience in case one gets to the duplicate page instead of the main one.
How to Check the Issue
Using any browser is enough to check the issue. Open the source code of the flawed page To do this, click the right mouse button at any spot of the page and choose “browse the code” option, or apply an online tool https://codebeautify.org/source-code-viewer.
Find the <link> tag with the rel=canonical attribute value. If there is no tag with the attribute, or it forwards to the URL of a current affected page, then there is an issue.
A classic example is when goods are sorted in the page with the help of URL parameters.
Example:
main page: https://site.com/asus/
sorting page: https://site.com/asus/?sort=desc
There is an issue, if:
- the page https://site.com/asus/?sort=desc has no link tag formatted as follows: <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://site.com/asus/”>;
- the page contains a link tag forwarding to the current page <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://site.com/asus/?sort=desc”>.
Sitechecker SEO tool has a specialized feature that identifies a common issue many websites face: duplicate pages without canonical tags. This particular issue is highlighted under the ‘Content relevance’ category because it can significantly impact your SEO efforts. Instead of getting overwhelmed by the total number of affected pages, our tool allows you to focus on the specific problem.
Our tool doesn’t just tell you that you have duplicates; it categorizes them into clusters for easy management. When you click on ‘View pages’ for any given cluster, you’ll not only see a list of the URLs with potential duplicate content but also specific details like the title of the pages and the date the issue was identified. This targeted approach helps you address each case of duplication methodically, ensuring that your content has the best chance to rank well in search engines. Remember, it’s not about the sheer volume of pages; it’s about identifying and resolving these critical issues that can dilute your SEO efforts.
Detect & Canonicalize Duplicates!
With our intuitive Canonical URL Checker, you can spot and consolidate duplicate pages.
How to Fix This Issue
To fix the issue, it is necessary to define the main page and specify it in the href attribute of a link tag.
Example:
<link rel=”canonical” href=””>
Google recommendations https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/consolidate-duplicate-urls?hl=en.
