Workflow guide · 4 minute read
Check canonical URLs
A page can look right and still declare the wrong preferred URL. Find those mappings in one view, compare the page with its target, and separate intentional duplicates from values that survived a migration or template change.
Best for migrations, CMS changes, and technical audits
12-second workflow
From a full crawl to one canonical to review.
Recorded in SEO Crawler 0.1.8 using deliberate public fixtures. The demo starts with a completed crawl and ends on the canonical target that needs review; it does not change the website.
What happens in the demo
Start with the full result set
The crawl is complete. URL and Canonical URL are already visible, with no cell selected.
Filter the canonical finding
Canonical points elsewhere reduces the table to the migration checklist. The Issues panel stays open so the filter and its result remain connected.
Identify the affected page
Selecting the URL cell identifies the page that declares the canonical, not the page it points to.
Check the declared target
The final selection highlights https://lilrobots.com/pricing in Canonical URL. Compare that target with the checklist page before deciding what should change.
Catch the mapping before fixing the wrong page.
Checking source code one page at a time is slow, and a spreadsheet full of URLs does not tell you which pairs deserve attention. The Issues filter gives you a focused review list without losing the relationship between the page and its canonical.
Use it after changing domains, rebuilding a template, importing content, or updating how a CMS generates metadata. Look for repeated targets: one incorrect default can affect many pages.
Review the page and its declared canonical
Start with a completed crawl
Enter your site URL and run the crawl. Stay in Pages and keep the Issues panel open. For a safe practice run, use the public fixture site linked below.
Put both URLs in view
Open Filter and enable Canonical. Hide columns you do not need for this comparison. The focused view uses No., URL, and Canonical URL, so the page and its declared target can be read together.
Choose Canonical points elsewhere
Under Canonicals in Issues, select Canonical points elsewhere. Leave the panel open: the highlighted issue and the reduced table show exactly which condition produced the result.
Compare the page with its target
Select the URL cell to identify the page being checked, then select its Canonical URL cell. The second cell is what that page declares, not a redirect destination or a confirmed Google-selected canonical.
Read the fixture result
- Page URL
- https://lilrobots.com/seo-crawler/fixtures/blog/migration-checklist
- Declared canonical
- https://lilrobots.com/pricing
The migration checklist points to a pricing page. This mismatch is deliberate demo data. On a real site, inspect both pages and ask whether they actually represent the same content before deciding which URL should be preferred.
One finding is not the whole diagnosis.
This fixture also has a noindex directive. Correcting its canonical alone would not remove that directive. Review Indexing Reason and robots signals separately when investigating whether a production page is eligible for indexing.
A different URL is not automatically a mistake.
A deliberate duplicate
A parameter or duplicate URL may correctly point to the preferred version of the same content. Keep the mapping when that is the intended relationship.
The wrong page or old domain
An unrelated target can indicate a copied template value, a stale migration setting, or a CMS override. Check the source of the value before changing individual pages.
A page that should stand on its own
If this is the preferred version, use a self-referencing canonical for its intended public URL. Apply the correction in the template or CMS field responsible for the output.
Canonicals indicate a preference for duplicate or similar content; they do not move visitors. Keep internal links and sitemap URLs consistent with the preferred version. Google makes its own canonical selection, so this crawl is not proof of which URL is indexed. See Google's canonical guidance.
Verify the correction, then hand it off.
After the change is live, run a fresh crawl and check the same page again. Confirm that Canonical URL contains the intended absolute URL, then inspect other pages using the same template. If the page should be indexed, check its status and robots directives too.
A useful ticket includes the affected page, the current canonical, the intended target, and the template or CMS field to change. Include a post-fix crawl result so the reviewer can see what changed. For a broader audit handoff, continue with exporting a fix list.
Open the practice fixtures