Point redirects, rel=canonical, sitemaps and internal links at the same canonical URL
| Impact | Evidence | Applies to | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium | Official guidance | Google, Bing | Oct 30, 2026 |
Why it matters
Google treats redirects and rel=canonical as strong signals and sitemap inclusion as a weak one, and the signals stack. When they disagree, Google picks its own canonical. robots.txt and noindex are not canonicalization tools.
How to do it
- Add a self-referencing rel=canonical in the HTML of every indexable page
- 301 redirect protocol, www and trailing-slash variants to one version
- Link internally only to canonical URLs and list only those in the sitemap
- If JavaScript sets a canonical, make it match the one in the HTML
Sources
- How to specify a canonical URL with rel=canonical and other methods · Google Search Central, Jul 10, 2026
- Understand JavaScript SEO basics · Google Search Central, Mar 4, 2026
Change history
| Date | Change | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 30, 2026 | Added | Added to the rulebook. |
Checked against its sources every Monday. Only content changes are listed.