Soap
Indexability

Missing canonical tag

A canonical tag tells search engines which URL is the preferred version of a page. When it is absent, engines guess — and they do not always guess right.

What it is

This check flags indexable 200 pages that ship no <link rel="canonical"> tag at all.

Why it matters for SEO

Without a canonical, parameter variants, tracking URLs, and slash/no-slash duplicates can each be indexed separately, splitting ranking signals across near-identical pages.

Example

<!-- No canonical in the <head> -->
<head>
    <title>Product page</title>
</head>

How to fix

  1. Add a self-referencing canonical to every indexable page: <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/page">.
  2. Use absolute HTTPS URLs that match the page's own indexable address.
  3. Keep canonical and internal links pointing at the same URL.
  4. Re-crawl to confirm each page now declares a canonical.

Related checks

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