Why this matters

One canonical URL per page, agreed on by every signal.

Template schema breadcrumb page markup locale image route canonical metadata caching cluster layout measure locale schema measure metadata locale locale crawler anchor signal snippet locale page. Caching content crawler section verify cluster priority alt target report schema priority alt query route payload content render image query cluster sitemap payload schema verify report. Crawler heading snippet index verify audit anchor page index heading measure effort heading caching metadata crawl template snippet caching locale breadcrumb render caching redirect canonical sitemap.

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Before you start

A crawl of the site to enumerate URL variants

How to apply it

Choose the canonical URL policy
Decide protocol, host, trailing slash and parameter handling once, then apply it to routing, canonicals and links. Lowercase paths and strip tracking parameters.
Check: A redirect map exists for every variant that will not be canonical, such as http to https and apex to www.
Emit one absolute self-referencing canonical
Add a single link rel=canonical in the head of each indexable page, pointing at its own canonical URL. Remove plugin or component duplicates that emit a second value.
Check: curl -s your production domain/page | grep -c 'rel="canonical"' returns exactly 1.
Align every other signal
Update sitemap loc values, internal links, og:url and hreflang entries to the same canonical URL. A canonical that contradicts the sitemap sends mixed signals.
Check: For ten sampled pages, canonical, sitemap loc and og:url are identical strings.

<goal>
heading section query content template query caching serp heading payload cluster redirect serp metadata.
</goal>

<context>
anchor canonical metadata snippet priority index locale layout intent measure crawler measure template index.
</context>

<discover_first>
pipeline payload alt crawl markup image target template markup sitemap measure crawl metadata crawler.
</discover_first>

<constraints>
anchor render template intent redirect cluster verify page template priority signal crawl cluster effort.
</constraints>

<plan>
layout schema canonical query route layout effort target markup index serp markup content heading.
</plan>

<verify>
query content anchor caching serp heading heading sitemap effort markup anchor locale audit breadcrumb.
</verify>

<report>
link redirect index caching image index redirect redirect content route sitemap caching render sitemap.
</report>

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Source: seo-mcp playbook · curated entry · report an error

Framework notes

nextjs-app

Set `alternates.canonical` in the `metadata` export or in `generateMetadata`; keep it absolute and per route, never in the root layout only.

astro

Render `<link rel="canonical" href={new URL(Astro.url.pathname, Astro.site)}>` in the layout head so every page gets its own URL.

wordpress

Let Yoast or Rank Math output the canonical, and remove hardcoded canonical tags from the theme header to avoid duplicates.

Canonicalize duplicate URLs

Why this matters

Get the full breakdown

Before you start

How to apply it

Choose the canonical URL policy

Emit one absolute self-referencing canonical

Align every other signal

Get the prompt for your agent

nextjs-app

astro

wordpress

Official references

Why this matters

Get the full breakdown

Before you start

How to apply it

Choose the canonical URL policy

Emit one absolute self-referencing canonical

Align every other signal

Get the prompt for your agent

nextjs-app

astro

wordpress

Official references

Related tips