Website & SEO

Canonical Tag Checker

Check a page's canonical tag: presence, absolute URL, and whether it is self-referencing or points elsewhere. Free, live server-side fetch.

Check canonical tag

Enter a URL. We fetch the page and inspect its canonical link.

What this canonical checker does

Fetches the page and reads its canonical tag
Confirms the canonical URL is absolute
Detects self-referencing vs cross-URL canonicals
Flags a missing canonical
Shows the exact tag markup
Runs live server-side, no CORS limits

Common use cases

  1. 1Diagnosing duplicate-content issues
  2. 2Confirming a page canonicalises to itself
  3. 3Auditing canonicals after a migration
  4. 4Checking parameterised URLs canonicalise correctly
  5. 5Verifying a fix before re-indexing
  6. 6Spot-checking templates for canonical bugs

Related tools

Meta tag auditorHreflang validatorRedirect chain tracerSEO content analyzerHTTP header inspectorGoogle SERP snippet preview

About canonical tags

A canonical tag (<link rel="canonical">) tells search engines which URL is the master version of a page when the same or similar content is reachable at several URLs. It consolidates ranking signals onto one URL and prevents duplicate-content dilution.

Most pages should have a self-referencing canonical pointing to their own clean URL. A canonical that points elsewhere is a deliberate signal to index that other page instead — correct for duplicates, but a common accidental cause of pages vanishing from search. This checker fetches the live page and shows exactly what its canonical says.

More Free Tools Where This Came From

This utility is one of dozens of free, no-login tools for DNS, email, SEO and developers — all instant and private.

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HostCloud.in  ·  Pune, India  ·  Serving 34,987+ Websites Since 2020

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Got Questions? We Have Answers.

What does the canonical checker do?

It fetches the page and reads its rel=canonical link, confirming it is present and absolute, and whether it is self-referencing or points to a different URL.

What is a self-referencing canonical?

A canonical that points to the page's own clean URL — the standard, safe setup for a normal page. A canonical pointing elsewhere tells search engines to index that other URL instead.

Why would a page disappear from search?

A common cause is an accidental canonical pointing at another URL, so Google indexes that one instead of the page you expected.

Is the check live?

Yes. The page is fetched server-side at the moment you check, so you see the real canonical tag.