Search
Take back a canonical tag that points at another site
Your canonical tag names a different domain, so your page tells search engines that the real version of this content lives somewhere else.
Why it matters
A canonical tag is a forwarding instruction: it says the original of this page is over there. When the address belongs to another domain, search engines can treat that other site as the source and your page as the copy, so your address loses the credit for your own work. It almost always arrives by accident, when a template is copied from another project or a staging address is left in place.
How you would notice it
- Search results show another domain for content you wrote and published.
- An SEO plugin or audit warns that the canonical URL is external.
- Your page ranks below the same text on a site you have never heard of.
What to do
Stage 1
- Open the head section of the page, or the shared layout if every page uses one, and search the file for the word canonical.
The address after href is the one to inspect. If it does not start with your own domain, this repair applies. If the duplication is intentional, such as content syndicated from a publisher you want credited, leave the tag as it is.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://someone-elses-domain.com/services/">Stage 2
- Replace that address with the address of the page you are editing, on the host you actually serve.
Keep one canonical per page, and point it at that page rather than at the homepage. A canonical that points every page at the homepage tells search engines your other pages are duplicates.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/services/">Stage 3
- Check whether the same wrong address appears on your other pages. A copied layout repeats it everywhere, and fixing one page leaves the rest wrong.
How to check it worked
Confirm it worked
Load the page, use View Source, and find the canonical line: the address should start with your own domain and name the page you are on. Re-run the Siege Test and confirm the Canonical URL recommendation is gone.