Canonical points to another URL
A canonical that points away from the page itself tells search engines: "index that other URL instead of this one." Sometimes that is intentional — often it is a mistake.
What it is
This check flags pages whose canonical targets a URL different from their own address.
Why it matters for SEO
If the mismatch is unintended, the page removes itself from the index and passes its signals elsewhere. Templated or wrong canonicals can de-index whole sections of a site.
Example
<!-- on https://example.com/blue-widgets -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/widgets">
How to fix
- Confirm the target is genuinely the preferred version; if not, self-canonicalise.
- Ensure canonicalised duplicates truly are duplicates, not unique pages.
- Avoid site-wide templates that hard-code one canonical for many pages.
- Re-crawl and verify each page canonicalises to the URL you intend to rank.