How to Resolve Canonical Tag Issues on Your Website

2 responses to “Can Anyone Offer a Fix for This Canonical Tag Error?”

1. To address the issue with canonical tags and ensure that your site maintains its search engine performance while eliminating unnecessary tags like amp= or noamp=mobile, you can follow these steps:

   1. Understand the Current Setup

   Firstly, it’s important to comprehend how your pages are currently set up and what the current canonical tags indicate. Use Google Search Console or a tool like Screaming Frog SEO Spider to audit your pages and see how they are indexed.

   2. Remove Unnecessary Canonical Tags

   If you’re using AMP pages or have mobile-specific versions that are no longer necessary, you’ll want to clean up these tags.

   • Identify Pages: Start by identifying all pages that contain these outdated canonical tags. Ensure that you have a comprehensive list.

   • Update Canonical Tags: Modify the HTML head of these pages to set the canonical tag to the non-AMP/mobile version. For example, if your non-AMP version is the default, your tag should look like this in the HTML:

   html
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/your-page-url/" />

   This tag tells search engines that the specified URL is the preferred version, helping prevent indexing issues and duplicate content problems.

   3. 301 Redirects for Duplicates

   For pages that exist in both AMP and non-AMP forms, consider setting up 301 redirects from the AMP version to the non-AMP version. This ensures that any traffic trying to access the AMP version will automatically be redirected to the standard mobile or desktop version.

   • Redirect Example (Apache):
     apache
Redirect 301 /your-page-url/amp/ https://www.example.com/your-page-url/

   • Redirect Example (NGINX):
     nginx
rewrite ^/your-page-url/amp/$ https://www.example.com/your-page-url/ permanent;

   4. Use Google Search Console

   After making changes, regularly monitor Google Search Console to check for any crawl errors or issues. The “Coverage” and “Mobile Usability” reports will provide insights into any problems.

   5. Test Changes

   Test the pages where changes have been made to ensure that there are no negative effects on user experience or SEO.

   • Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and PageSpeed Insights to ensure that pages load correctly and quickly on mobile devices.

   6.

   Reply

2. Hi there!

   It sounds like you’re dealing with a common issue that many website owners encounter, especially with non-indexed pages and outdated canonical tags. One effective approach to tackle this is to first ensure that any tags you wish to remove truly don’t contribute to SEO value. You might want to conduct an analysis of your site’s performance metrics for these pages—if they don’t attract significant traffic, it might be a safe bet to remove or update the tags.

   When you do remove the `amp=/` or `noamp=mobile` tags, consider implementing 301 redirects from those outdated paths to relevant indexed pages. This way, you can preserve any potential traffic and provide a better user experience. Additionally, make sure to update your XML sitemaps and submit them in Google Search Console post-removal to ensure search engines re-crawl your site effectively.

   Lastly, if you have Google Analytics set up, it’s wise to monitor your traffic closely after making these changes. This will help you discern whether your adjustments had any unintended consequences. Good luck with your SEO efforts, and I hope this helps steer you in the right direction!

   Reply