Google Search Console is your website’s health report so to speak—telling you what is working and what is not. But getting the ‘Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag’ error? That’s like getting a mysterious symptom with no simple cure! The SEO technical issue arises when Google comes across a page, recognizes it as an alternative, and detects that the proper canonical tag has been used. This isn’t going to kill your rankings stone dead, but it is going to generate indexing inefficiencies that erode your SEO. Let’s see it through the steps and have your site functioning again.
Understanding The ‘alternate Page With Proper Canonical Tag’ Issue
Think of Google as a librarian trying to sort through books (your webpages). If there are multiple copies of the same book, it needs to decide which one to recommend. The canonical tag helps it do that. But Google messes up sometimes, and this is the error that occurs. It’s usually caused by duplicate content, poorly placed canonical tags, or careless internal linking.
Recent studies by SEMrush uncovered that more than 25% of websites have canonicalization issues, which makes crawling and indexing less efficient. If your pages are not being seen as they should be, this might be the culprit!
Steps To Resolve The ‘alternate Page With Proper Canonical Tag’ Error
1. Double-Verify Your Canonical Tag
Step one? Ensure your canonical tag is properly positioned in the <head> section of the pages that are affected. This tag should always point to the preferred version of the page.
Example:
<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.example.com/preferred-page/”>
This simple tweak tells Google, “Hey, this is the page you should focus on!”
2. Repair Internal Links
Internal links are like road signs that direct Google to the correct pages. If your links are scattered everywhere, Google may have trouble determining which page is the canonical one. A SEMrush study discovered that 39% of sites have broken or inconsistent internal linking, misleading search engines and users. Ensure that all your internal links are linking to the correct URL!
3. Employ 301 Redirects (If Needed)
Have multiple iterations of the same page hanging out? Time to consolidate! Use 301 redirects to point all duplicate content versions to your authority URL. Not only does this help with indexing, but it also passes SEO equity to the correct page.
4. Investigate ‘Crawled, Currently Not Indexed’ Issues
Google can spider your page but not index it—ouch. This can happen when your content is a copy of other pages, is not relevant, or is mistakenly canonicalized. Ensure that your content is original and not a copy of other pages with best practices for canonical tags.
5. Get Your Sitemap and Robots.txt Explained
Your XML sitemap should only have your favorite pages, not multiples. Ensure that your robots.txt is not blocking important pages.
Google estimates over 20% of all indexation issues result from incorrect sitemap configurations. Getting it tidy prevents Google from not knowing what to crawl!
6. Request a Reindex in Google Search Console
Finished making all of these fixes? Well done! Now request Google to re-crawl. Request Google Search Console to re-crawl to hurry the process and seek your adjustments in approval speedily.
Why infiniX360?
We are not merely an additional digital marketing agency in Chennai, your growth partner here at infiniX360. We excel at breaking tricky SEO secrets, getting your web page ranked more highly and performing better. Need to fix Google indexing issues, make your canonical tag strategy more efficient, or enhance your overall SEO game? We are here for you. With our data-driven methodologies and hands-on experience, we assist companies in improving search rankings, driving more organic traffic, and boosting conversions. Ready to take your website to the next level? Let’s discuss!
Correcting the ‘Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag’ error is crucial to keeping your website’s SEO in top shape. These steps will make sure that search engines can correctly identify your intended pages, maximizing indexing and visibility overall.
Although problems with canonicals may not seem all that serious, they can make a dramatic difference. Proper canonical implementation can potentially boost organic traffic by as much as 15%, a huge boon to any website!
If you need expert help with SEO technical issues and Google indexing issues, infiniX360 stands ready to help!
