A canonical tag may be set on a page but include no URL. This error means that Google will ignore the directive.
You can solve this issue manually, or you can leverage SEO automation to make the changes at scale.
Let’s explore both options.
If a canonical points to an empty link, search engines will disregard the canonical instruction.
That means any duplicate content issues that the canonical was meant to resolve will still be on your site.
To solve this problem, you’ll need to first delete the canonical tag, and then add it again — this time with the URL.
When you re-add the canonical, ensure that the canonicalized URL is populated so that it serves its intended purpose.
This 3-step workflow shows how to solve the problem with Clarity Automate: an execution-first SEO platform that lets you get more done.
To start, you’ll need to delete the canonical.
Since we’re dealing with a canonical tag issue, we start by selecting “Canonical Tag” in ClarityAutomate.
You first need to delete the canonical tag before we add it again, so we select “Delete”.
Set the XPath of the canonical that contains the empty URL.
With those three steps, you can delete the appropriate canonical tags from your site — no dev team required.
Now, it’s time to re-add the canonical, this time with the proper URL.
Again, we follow a 3-step process.
We’re still dealing with canonicals, so we repeat this step by selecting “Canonical Tag”.
Instead of deleting, this time you want to add a canonical tag.
Enter the hyperlink of the new canonical URL to add it to the applicable pages.
Just like that, you’ve deleted an improper canonical tag and replaced it with a valid one.
The best part? The process outlined above can be accomplished in a few minutes with next-gen SEO technology, not days or weeks.