Avoid redirect chains on canonical URLs

Canonical chains confuse search engines and can result in the wrong version of a page being indexed, while also adding unnecessary latency for crawlers.

Quick Reference

• Ensure that the URL in your rel="canonical" tag returns a 200 OK status
• Never point a canonical tag to a URL that then redirects to another location
• Verify that the canonical URL is the final, intended version of the content

Check

Verify that the canonical URL of the page does not result in any redirects.

Fix

Update the <link rel="canonical"> tag to point directly to the final, non-redirecting URL.

Explain