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Rule · Canonicalization

Internal links and hreflang point to canonical URLs

SEO-CANON-05C2 Recommended· w4

Class
C2 Recommended
Weight
4
Severity on fail
major
Applies to
Google

Test this rule on a live site with the canonical tag checker. Free, no account needed.

Scope and evidence

Evaluated on page (P). The book marks this requirement DOCUMENTED RECOMMENDATION, SEARCH-ENGINE-SPECIFIC.

{target_problem} is "redirects to {final}" or "names {canonical} as canonical".

Fail conditions

Each condition has a stable code and a reason template. The evaluator fills the placeholders from observed values only; no sentence in a report is generated.

  • links_to_redirects

    {url} links to {n} URLs that redirect, for example {example} (redirects to {final}). Google recommends linking within your site to the canonical URL rather than a duplicate.

  • links_to_non_canonical

    {url} links to {n} URLs that name another URL as canonical, for example {example} (canonical: {canonical}). Google recommends linking within your site to the canonical URL rather than a duplicate.

  • hreflang_to_non_canonical

    {url} lists {n} hreflang alternates that are not canonical, for example {example} ({target_problem}). Google advises against specifying different URLs as canonical for the same page using different techniques.

The documented fix

Generate internal links and hreflang URLs from the same canonical-URL function the canonical tag uses.

Sources, quoted

These are the passages the rule rests on, stored once in the knowledge base and emitted exactly as written. A citation marked for specific conditions appears only on findings with those codes.