This tool is designed to help you identify and fix issues with canonical tags, specifically focusing on canonical chains and canonical loops, which can negatively impact your SEO performance.
Canonical tags are crucial for guiding search engines to the preferred version of a page when there are duplicates or variations. However, when these tags are misconfigured, they can create complex chains or loops, leading to confusion for search engines, wasted crawl budget, and diluted ranking signals.
Canonical Checker Tool
What Are Canonical Chains and Loops?
- Canonical Chains
A canonical chain occurs when one page’s canonical tag points to another page, which in turn points to yet another page. For example:- Page A → Page B → Page C
- Canonical Loops
A canonical loop happens when a series of canonical tags point back to a previous page in the chain, creating an infinite loop. For example:- Page A → Page B → Page A
How This Tool Helps
This tool is designed to:
- Detect canonical chains and loops across your site.
- Highlight self-referencing canonicals (which are correctly configured and not an issue).
- Identify pages with no canonical tag, so you can decide if one is necessary.
It provides a detailed report to help you fix these issues, ensuring your website is optimised for search engines.
How to Use the Canonical Checker Tool
Option 1: Crawl a Domain
- Select “Crawl Domain” in the Crawling Method dropdown.
- Enter your website’s URL (e.g.,
https://example.com). - Choose the number of pages to crawl (10, 20, 50, 75, or 100).
- Click Start to begin the analysis.
Option 2: Manual URL Input
- Select “Manual URL Input” in the Crawling Method dropdown.
- Paste a list of URLs (one per line) into the text box provided.
- Click Start to analyse the canonical tags for the specified URLs.
Results Explained
After the tool completes its analysis, you’ll see a detailed table with the following information:
- Page URL: The page being analysed.
- Canonical URL: The URL set in the canonical tag for that page.
- Type:
- Self-Referencing: The page correctly points to itself. This is ideal.
- Chain: A canonical tag points to another page, creating multiple steps.
- Loop: A circular reference is found in the canonical tags.
- None: No canonical tag is present on the page.
- Chain Length: The number of steps in a canonical chain.
Why Fixing Chains and Loops Is Important for SEO
Canonical Chains
- They slow down search engine crawlers, potentially wasting crawl budget.
- They can dilute the ranking signals (such as backlinks) meant for your preferred page.
- Chains add unnecessary complexity to your site’s structure, delaying indexing.
Canonical Loops
- Loops create an endless cycle of confusion for search engines.
- They prevent search engines from correctly identifying the preferred page to index.
- This can lead to pages being excluded from search results altogether.
By addressing these issues, you ensure that search engines understand your website’s structure and can rank the correct versions of your pages.
Best Practices for Canonical Tags
- Use self-referencing canonicals for unique pages to avoid ambiguity.
- Avoid canonical chains by pointing directly to the final canonical version.
- Fix canonical loops immediately to prevent indexing issues.
- Ensure every page has an appropriate canonical tag, especially for pages with similar content (e.g., product variations).