Canonical URL Checker

Stop keyword cannibalisation

Duplicate content splits a page against itself. Three pages of near-identical content give a search engine no way to choose, so it often ranks none of them well. This checks that bots are being pointed at the version you actually want to rank.

When you need a canonical check

• Ecommerce. One product reachable through several categories, so /shirts/red-shirt and /sale/red-shirt are the same page twice.
• URL parameters. Campaign tags like ?utm_source=facebook look like a new page to a crawler unless a canonical says otherwise.
• Syndicated content. If you republish on Medium or LinkedIn, your own post should be the canonical version.

Reading the result

• Self-referencing. The page points at itself. Normal, and what a unique page should do.
• Points elsewhere. Correct for a duplicate: a paginated result, a print version, a syndicated copy.
• Missing. No instruction at all, so a search engine guesses which version to rank.