Enter a page URL to see its canonical tag and HTTP canonical header, whether it is self-referencing, missing, duplicated, conflicting, relative or in the wrong place, and whether the URL it points to is live, indexable and agrees with it. Free, no account needed.
A canonical is a strong hint, not an order. Search engines follow it when it is clear, consistent and points at a page they can index. The report checks all three.
The canonical URL search engines will read, and what it points to: this page (self-referencing), another URL on the same site, or a URL on another domain. If tags conflict or sit in the wrong place, no canonical is used, and the report says so.
Every canonical in the HTML and in the HTTP Link header, as written and as resolved to a full URL, with its placement. A canonical in the <body>, or after an element that closes the <head> early, is ignored.
When the canonical points elsewhere, the target's status code, any redirect, whether it is noindex, and its own canonical. A canonical must point at a live, indexable page that is its own canonical.
Each issue with its fix, from a missing canonical to canonicals that differ only by a trailing slash, http instead of https, cross-domain canonicals, chains and two pages pointing at each other.
Use the exact URL you want to check, including any parameters. If it redirects, we check the page it lands on and tell you.
From link rel="canonical" tags anywhere in the HTML and from the HTTP Link header, noting where each one sits and resolving relative values.
Tags outside the head are ignored, and canonicals that point to different URLs cancel each other out. What remains is the effective canonical.
If the canonical points to another page, we load it to check its status, redirects, robots rules and its own canonical.
The TaskGlaze site audit checks canonicals across every page, including canonicals to redirects, to noindex pages and loops. See the site audit.
Canonical tags tell search engines which URL to index when the same content is reachable at several addresses. Done well, they consolidate signals; done badly, they can remove pages from results.
A page that points at itself protects against tracking parameters, session IDs and other variants being indexed instead. It is the safe default for every page you want to rank.
Write https://www.example.com/page, not /page. Relative canonicals work, but they break silently when a page is served from another host or protocol.
Scheme, host, path, trailing slash and case all count. https://example.com/page and https://example.com/page/ are different URLs, and a canonical that differs only by a slash points somewhere else.
One link tag in the <head> or one HTTP header. When a theme and a plugin both add one, they must agree, or search engines ignore both.
Anything that isn't allowed in the head, such as an image, iframe or div, closes it early. A canonical below that point is treated as body content and ignored.
The target must answer 200, without redirecting, and must not be noindex. Otherwise search engines ignore the canonical or, worse, drop both pages.
Use canonicals for true duplicates: parameter variants, print versions, syndicated copies. Pages that merely cover similar topics should each keep their own canonical.
PDFs and other non-HTML files can declare a canonical with Link: <https://example.com/doc>; rel="canonical". The same rules about one consistent value apply.
A template that hard-codes the site root tells search engines every page is a duplicate of the home page. Pages drop out of results.
The canonical points at an old URL that now redirects, often http:// or a missing trailing slash. Point at the final URL.
The two signals contradict each other, and neither page may be indexed.
The HTML says one URL and the HTTP header says another, or two link tags disagree. Search engines ignore all of them.
Page 2 isn't a duplicate of page 1. Canonicalising it to page 1 can hide the products or posts that only appear deeper in the series.
Staging or old domains left in templates send rankings to another site. Check the host in every canonical after a migration.
Pick one: canonical for duplicates you want consolidated, noindex for pages that shouldn't appear at all.
A canonical loop gives search engines no clear choice. One page must be the canonical of both.
Self-referencing canonicals, conflicts, cross-domain canonicals and more.
A canonical URL checker reads the canonical a page declares, in its HTML and HTTP headers, and tells you which URL search engines are asked to index. This one also checks placement and conflicts, and loads the canonical URL to confirm it is live and indexable.
A canonical tag is <link rel="canonical" href="…"> in a page's <head>. It tells search engines which URL is the main version when the same content is available at several addresses, so ranking signals are combined on that one.
Every page you want indexed should, yes. A self-referencing canonical stops variants with tracking parameters, session IDs or different capitalisation being indexed instead of the clean URL.
If they point to the same URL, it works but one is enough. If they point to different URLs, search engines treat the canonical as unclear and ignore all of them, then pick a canonical themselves.
Yes. Cross-domain canonicals are a valid way to credit the original source of syndicated content. They also hand this page's ranking to the other domain, so make sure that is what you want.
No. A canonical is a strong hint. Google may choose a different canonical if your tag conflicts with redirects, internal links, sitemaps or hreflang, or if the target isn't a good page to index.
It works, because it is resolved against the page URL. It becomes a problem when the same page is reachable on another host or protocol, where the relative value resolves to the wrong URL. Absolute URLs avoid that.
The usual reasons are that it sits in the <body>, that an element earlier in the <head> closed the head early, that two canonicals conflict, or that the href is empty. The report shows the placement of each canonical.
A Link header such as Link: <https://example.com/page>; rel="canonical". It does the same job as the tag and is the only option for PDFs and other non-HTML files. If both are present they must agree.
Redirect when the old URL should no longer be visited at all. Use a canonical when both URLs need to keep working for visitors, such as filtered or tracked versions of the same page.
Three per tool per day without an account, or fifteen per tool per day when you are signed in to your TaskGlaze account. Each free tool has its own count.
We check every link against public lists of phishing and scam sites before loading it, and refuse ones that look unsafe. A refused link doesn't use one of your daily checks.
More free checks from TaskGlaze, with the same daily allowance for each tool.
The TaskGlaze site audit flags missing, conflicting and broken canonicals across your whole site, on a schedule.