What is canonical urls?

A canonical URL is an HTML link element that helps search engines, and other web crawlers understand which version of a web page to index.

How do I test canonical tags?

You can check canonical tags with the help of the Netpeak Spider Canonical Checker. It will show you the reports on canonical tags, non-compliant canonical URLs, canonicalized pages, etc.

How does a Search Engine decide which URL to index or not index?

During the indexing process, Google decides if a page is a duplicate of another page on the internet or canonical. The canonical is the page that Google indexes in search engine results.

When is a canonical URL used?

A canonical URL is used when your website has duplicate or similar content, and you want to tell Google which page to index.

Why is canonical URL Tag important in SEO?

In canonicalization SEO, canonical tags are used to let Google know which version of the page you want to display in search results, which will improve the visibility and indexing of your page.

Test canonical URL on your website with Netpeak Сanonical Tag Checker

Canonical tags are used for several pages with duplicate or similar content. In that way, you need to tell Google what page to focus on when ranking it in search engine results. When Google sees a canonical tag on such a page, it automatically counts this page as primary.

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Get the Canonical Tag Checker

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Install Netpeak Spider

Choose Necessary Parameters

Start Crawl

Get the Canonical Tag Data

Key features of Netpeak Spider Canonical Tag Checker

Check out the main Spider Canonical Tag Checker and dig deeper into what value you will get with this tool.

Canonicalized Pages

This feature indicates canonicalized pages where a URL in the <link rel=”canonical” /> tag or the “Link: rel=”canonical” HTTP response header differs from the page url.

Canonicals

This feature checks the canonicals on your page - the number of URLs in a canonical chain starting from the current page. A check is performed automatically when crawling is paused and after it has been successfully completed. Checks can be canceled or started via the Analysis menu.

Non-Compliant Canonical URL

Netpeak Spider Canonical Checker indicates pages with a link to non-canonical URL in the <link rel=”canonical” /> tag or the “Link: rel=”canonical”.

Canonical Chain

In this section, you’ll see pages starting a canonical chain (when a canonical URL contains a page address that links to another URL, the <link rel=”canonical” /> tag or the “Link: rel=”canonical” HTTP response header) or taking part in it. To view detailed information, open the additional table “Canonical” in the “Database” menu.

Canonicalized Pages

This notice indicates canonicalized pages where a URL in the <link rel=canonical”/>tag or the “Link: rel=”canonical” HTTP response header differs from the page URL.

Identical Canonical URLs

It indicates all pages with identical canonical URLs in the <link rel=”canonical” tag or the “Link: rel=”canonical” HTTP response header. URLs in this report are grouped by the “Canonical url” parameter.

Getting a thorough SEO audit

Get an SEO analysis of your website and a list of all the issues you need to fix. You will get information about scraping, crawling, links, content, canonical links, head tags, as well as Google Analytics.

Manage your website content and improve your visibility with Netpeak Spider Canonical Checker

Want to manage your content in the right way? With Netpeak Spider Canonical Checker, you can improve your rankings by telling Google which content to prioritise. Start the free trial to get access to all the features.

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How to use Netpeak Spider Canonical Checker

1. Open Netpeak Spider - choose parameters - crawl the domain/page

Enter the URL of the page you want to analyze the canonical tags of; in the parameters, choose “canonical URL” and press the “Start” button to start the website crawl.

Netpeak spider canonical checker instruction

2. Find Canonical data

Enter the URL of the page you want to analyze and find the canonical URL in the “rel canonical url” section.

3. Export results

If you want to export the results of the canonical analysis, click the “Export” button and pick “Current table results”.

4. Find Canonical issues

In the Issues section, click the “Non-compliant Canonical url” tab to find canonical page issues.

5. Export special issues report

In the reports tab, choose special issue reports and pick a non-compliant canonical link.

6. Analyze other issues reports on your website

With Netpeak Spider, you can also see reports on different issues on your website, such as broken pages, 4xx error pages, broken redirects, duplicate H1s, missing confirmation links, canonical pages, etc.