What Takes Place When Google Selects The Incorrect Canonical URL?

What Takes Place When Google Selects The Incorrect Canonical URL?

What Takes Place When Google Selects The Incorrect Canonical URL?

 

What Takes Place When Google Selects The Incorrect Canonical URL?

 

The use of a canonical tag does not always guarantee that Google will display the URL you intended in search results. This can be frustrating even if you have taken all the necessary steps such as implementing canonical, sitemap, and hreflang tags, and ensuring that Google Search Console is set up correctly.

Google Search Advocate, John Mueller, addressed this issue on the r/TechSEO forum on Reddit. He explained that a canonical tag helps Google identify which URL to display when there are similar pieces of content. However, there are a few reasons why Google may not show the URL you want.

One common issue is duplicate content, which occurs when different web pages have similar content. Despite the Reddit user's belief that the pages in question are different enough to not be considered duplicate content, Mueller stated that Google still considers them duplicates and only displays the most recent version in search results, removing older versions. Interestingly, in some cases, hreflang tags have helped ensure that the correct URL is displayed.

Another issue Mueller identified is page titles, which can confuse Google when working with websites that use multiple country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). To avoid this, he advises not using domain extensions in page titles.

If you want to fix the issue of Google displaying the wrong canonical URL, simply modifying page titles or adding new tags won't cut it. To prevent Google from removing duplicate content from your pages in search results, you need to make significant changes to the content itself.

Despite the frustration of not seeing your desired URL in search results, Mueller assures us that this is not a major problem. There is no disadvantage in terms of search rankings, and Google Search Console reports remain the same, regardless of which URL is chosen. To get Google to index and display your preferred canonical URL, you must create content that is different from the page Google is currently displaying.

 

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