The alert “Alternate page with proper canonical tag” from Google signals the presence of duplicate pages that have been correctly canonicalized. This notification is often overlooked by SEO professionals, but it harbors hidden opportunities and potential challenges.

Uncovering the reasons behind this status can reveal valuable insights about your website’s structure and SEO health. It’s not just a matter of duplicate content; it’s about understanding the intricacies of your site’s architecture and its impact on search performance.

Step 1: Verifying Correct Canonicalization

  • Understanding Canonicalization: Canonical tags are a cornerstone of SEO, directing search engines to the preferred version of a webpage. They are crucial in preventing duplicate content issues and consolidating page authority.
  • Audit Process: To ensure that your pages are properly canonicalized, start by examining the list under Coverage > Alternate page with proper canonical tag in your SEO tool. Scrutinize whether the pages listed should indeed be canonicalized. This step is not just a technical check but a strategic assessment of your content’s uniqueness and relevance.
  • Correcting Missteps: In cases where pages have been incorrectly canonicalized, it’s essential to recalibrate. Update the canonical links to point to the most relevant or authoritative page. This might involve pointing a canonical tag back to the page itself if it’s incorrectly pointing elsewhere.

Example for Step 1:

Imagine you’re managing a lifestyle blog that has multiple articles on health and wellness. Each article covers a unique aspect – one discusses the benefits of meditation, another explores yoga for beginners, and a third offers nutritional tips for a healthy lifestyle.

Initially, these articles were incorrectly canonicalized to point to the main health and wellness category page because they seemed thematically similar.

Upon reviewing your site after noticing the “Alternate page with proper canonical tag” status, you realize this canonicalization approach has led to the unique value of each article being overshadowed. They are not being indexed individually by search engines, thereby limiting their visibility and potential to attract distinct audiences.

To rectify this, you update the canonical tags so that each article points to its own URL. This change acknowledges that while the articles share a common theme, each offers distinct and valuable content that deserves separate recognition in search results.

As a result, the meditation article starts ranking for keywords specific to meditation benefits, the yoga article captures the attention of yoga beginners, and the nutritional tips article becomes a go-to resource for diet-related queries. This not only improves the visibility of each article but also enhances the overall authority of your blog in the health and wellness space.

  • Analyzing URL Patterns: Closely examine the URL patterns of canonicalized pages. Look for commonalities like AMP pages, variants, and URLs with UTM tags. While often harmless, in certain scenarios, these can cause issues.
  • Managing Page Variants: Sites, especially e-commerce platforms, may create numerous page variants for products. While this is beneficial for user experience, it can bloat your site with low-value URLs. Consider making some variants less accessible to search engines, possibly using URL parameters like ‘#’.
  • Addressing Rogue UTM Tags: UTM tags are useful for tracking, but when misapplied to internal links, they can disrupt page authority flow and analytics data. Identify and rectify any misuse of UTM tags in internal links.

Example for Step 2:

Consider an online clothing store that has individual product pages for each item, with additional separate pages for every color and size variant. For instance, a popular t-shirt design has its own page, and there are additional pages for each color (red, blue, green) and size (S, M, L, XL) combination. This results in a multitude of pages with similar content, which could dilute the SEO value of the main product page.

Technical Steps to Address the Issue:

  1. URL Parameter Implementation:
    • Instead of having separate URLs for each variant, implement URL parameters. For example, the main t-shirt page URL could be www.example.com/product/t-shirt, and variants could be www.example.com/product/t-shirt?color=red&size=M.
    • This approach consolidates the variants under a single product URL, reducing the number of pages that need to be crawled and indexed.
  2. Use of Canonical Tags:
    • Assign a canonical tag to each variant URL, pointing back to the main product page. This signals to search engines that while these variant pages exist, the main product page is the primary one that should be indexed.
    • Example: <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/product/t-shirt" /> is added to the head of each variant page.
  3. Robots.txt and Meta Robots Tag:
    • Update the robots.txt file to disallow crawling of URLs with specific parameters, like color and size. For example, Disallow: /*?color=* and Disallow: /*?size=*.
    • Alternatively, use the meta robots tag to noindex variant pages. This can be done by adding <meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow"> to the head of each variant page.
  4. Audit and Testing:
    • Regularly audit the site to ensure that the parameters are being implemented correctly and that search engines are respecting the canonical tags and robots.txt directives.
    • Monitor the site’s search performance to assess the impact of these changes and make adjustments as needed.

By implementing these technical steps, the online store can significantly streamline its site structure, making it more efficient for both search engines and users. This approach reduces unnecessary page bloat, focuses the SEO efforts on the main product pages, and ensures that each product variant is accessible without compromising the site’s overall search performance.

Step 3: Identifying and Resolving Crawl Budget Issues

  • Crawl Budget Considerations: A high number of pages with the ‘Alternate page with proper canonical tag’ status can consume your site’s crawl budget. This means search engines may spend too much time on low-value pages, neglecting more important content.
  • Strategic Use of Robots.txt: Implementing directives in your robots.txt file can guide search engines to prioritize crawling valuable content. This is particularly crucial for larger sites where crawl budget is a key concern.
  • Monitoring External Links: Pay attention to how external sites link to your content. Unexpected or low-quality external links can lead to crawl budget being spent on irrelevant pages.

Example for Step 3:

Consider a scenario involving a large news website that publishes hundreds of articles daily. Over time, the website accumulates a vast number of pages, including older news articles that are no longer attracting significant traffic.

Despite their reduced relevance, these pages still consume the site’s crawl budget, potentially diverting search engine resources away from newer, more pertinent content.

Technical Steps to Optimize Crawl Budget:

  1. Identify Low-Value Pages:
    • Use an SEO tool to analyze the website’s traffic data. Identify older news articles that haven’t received significant traffic or engagement for an extended period, say over a year.
    • Create a list of these URLs for further action.
  2. Implementing noindex Tags:
    • For articles identified as low-value, add a noindex meta tag. This can be done by inserting <meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow"> into the HTML head of each page.
    • This action instructs search engines not to index these pages, freeing up crawl budget for more valuable content.
  3. Updating the robots.txt File:
    • Modify the robots.txt file to prevent search engines from crawling specific sections of the website known for hosting older, less relevant articles. For instance, Disallow: /archive/ could be used to block a directory containing older content.
    • Ensure that this action doesn’t inadvertently block access to important or relevant content.
  4. Sitemap Optimization:
    • Revise the website’s sitemap to exclude the low-value pages. This further reinforces to search engines what content is considered priority.
    • Regularly update the sitemap to reflect new content and remove outdated articles.
  5. Monitoring and Adjusting:
    • After implementing these changes, closely monitor the website’s crawl stats and search performance.
    • Look for improvements in the indexing and ranking of newer, more relevant content.
    • Adjust the strategy as needed based on performance data and ongoing analysis of site content.

Conclusion

This comprehensive approach to managing ‘Alternate page with proper canonical tag’ notifications goes beyond mere technical fixes. It requires a deep understanding of your website’s content strategy, user experience, and overall SEO goals.

By addressing these issues with a nuanced and informed strategy, you not only enhance your site’s search engine performance but also provide a better experience for your visitors. Remember, SEO is not just about pleasing algorithms; it’s about creating a cohesive, user-friendly, and valuable online presence.