Issue: Missing Canonical Medium

Pages without a <link rel="canonical"> tag to declare the preferred URL.

What this means

Without a canonical tag, search engines must guess which URL version to index when the same content is accessible via multiple URLs (with/without trailing slash, www/non-www, HTTP/HTTPS, query parameters). The JSON field is missing_canonical.

Detection condition

Triggered when no <link rel="canonical"> element is found in the page's <head>.

Impact on scores

Severity weight: 7. Deductions: −12 on Indexability, −14 on Hygiene.

How to fix

Add a self-referencing canonical tag to every page:

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

The canonical URL should be:

Absolute (include the full protocol and domain)
The preferred version (HTTPS, with or without www — pick one)
Without query parameters (unless parameters change content)
Consistent with your sitemap URLs

Issue: Missing Canonical Medium

What this means

Detection condition

Impact on scores

How to fix

Related