How to discover and suggest Google-selected canonical URLs for your pages
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Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Sometimes a web page can be reached by using more than one URL. In such cases, Google tries to
determine the best URL to display in search and to use in other ways. We call this the
"canonical URL." There are ways site owners can help us better determine what should be the
canonical URLs for their content.
If you suspect we've not selected the best canonical URL for your content, you can check by
entering your page's address into the
URL Inspection tool
within
Search Console. It
will show you the
Google-selected canonical.
If you believe there's a better canonical that should be used, follow the steps on our
duplicate URLs help page
on how to suggest a preferred choice for consideration.
Please be aware that if you search using the site: or inurl: commands,
you will be shown the domain you specified in those, even if these aren't the Google-selected
canonical. This happens because we're fulfilling the exact request entered. Behind-the-scenes, we
still use the Google-selected canonical, including for when people see pages without using the
site: or inurl: commands.
We've also changed URL Inspection tool so that it will display any Google-selected canonical for a
URL, not just those for properties you manage in Search Console. With this change, we're also
retiring the info: command. This was an alternative way of discovering canonicals. It
was relatively underused, and URL Inspection tool provides a more comprehensive solution to help
publishers with URLs.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle selects the best URL for a webpage, called the "canonical URL," to display in search results.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebsite owners can influence Google's canonical URL selection and verify it using the URL Inspection tool in Search Console.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsing \u003ccode\u003esite:\u003c/code\u003e or \u003ccode\u003einurl:\u003c/code\u003e search commands might display a different URL than Google's selected canonical, but Google still uses the canonical URL internally.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe URL Inspection tool now shows the Google-selected canonical for any URL, and the \u003ccode\u003einfo:\u003c/code\u003e command has been retired.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Google identifies the best URL, or \"canonical URL,\" for web pages accessible via multiple URLs. Site owners can use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to view the Google-selected canonical. If needed, they can suggest a preferred canonical using the \"duplicate URLs\" help page. The `site:` and `inurl:` commands show the specified domain, not necessarily the canonical. The URL Inspection tool now displays all Google-selected canonicals, and the `info:` command has been retired.\n"],null,["# How to discover and suggest Google-selected canonical URLs for your pages\n\nTuesday, March 26, 2019\n\n\nSometimes a web page can be reached by using more than one URL. In such cases, Google tries to\ndetermine the best URL to display in search and to use in other ways. We call this the\n\"canonical URL.\" There are ways site owners can help us better determine what should be the\ncanonical URLs for their content.\n\n\nIf you suspect we've not selected the best canonical URL for your content, you can check by\nentering your page's address into the\n[URL Inspection tool](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9012289)\nwithin\n[Search Console](https://search.google.com/search-console/about). It\nwill show you the\n[Google-selected canonical](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9012289#google-selected-canonical).\nIf you believe there's a better canonical that should be used, follow the steps on our\n[duplicate URLs](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls) help page\non how to suggest a preferred choice for consideration.\n\n\nPlease be aware that if you search using the `site:` or `inurl:` commands,\nyou will be shown the domain you specified in those, even if these aren't the Google-selected\ncanonical. This happens because we're fulfilling the exact request entered. Behind-the-scenes, we\nstill use the Google-selected canonical, including for when people see pages without using the\n`site:` or `inurl:` commands.\n\n\nWe've also changed URL Inspection tool so that it will display any Google-selected canonical for a\nURL, not just those for properties you manage in Search Console. With this change, we're also\nretiring the `info:` command. This was an alternative way of discovering canonicals. It\nwas relatively underused, and URL Inspection tool provides a more comprehensive solution to help\npublishers with URLs.\n\n\nPosted by\n[John Mueller](https://twitter.com/johnmu),\nGoogle Switzerland"]]
