AMP Hints

        High This Hint is very important, and definitely warrants attention. Issue This Hint represents an error or problem that needs to be fixed.

        AMP Page URL has canonical URL which is noindex

        This means that the URL in question is an AMP Page URL, and contains a canonical tag pointing to a noindex URL.

        Why is this important?

        AMP HTML documents are required to have a canonical to the non-AMP equivalent (or a self-reference, if no equivalent exists). If this canonical is pointing to a URL that is noindex, search engines may not index the AMP URL.

        The canonical tag is a mandatory element for AMP pages to be considered valid, and the canonical tag is supposed to point back at the original 'non-AMP' version of the page. If this page is noindex, this sends a conflicting signal to search engines - increasing the chances that the AMP page will not show up in search results.

        What does the Hint check?

        This Hint will trigger for any AMP Page URL which has a canonical tag pointing to a URL that is set to noindex.

        Examples that trigger this Hint

        Consider the AMP Page URL: https://example.com/amp/page-a/

        The Hint would trigger for this URL if it included a canonical URL,

        <!doctype html>
        <html amp>
         <head>
          <meta charset="utf-8">
          <title>Sample document</title>
          <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/pages/page-a/" /> 
          ...
         </head>
         ...
        </html>

        where this canonical URL had a noindex in either the <head> or the HTTP header (or both):

        Meta noindex in the <head>,

        <!doctype html>
        <html lang="en">
         <head>
           <title>example</title>
           <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">
            ...
         </head>
         <body>...</body>
        </html>

        OR in the HTTP header:

        HTTP/... 200 OK
        ...
        X-Robots-Tag: noindex

        How do you resolve this issue?

        The canonical on an AMP page should be pointing to a URL that is indexable.

        To rectify the issue, you would need to fix the canonical on the AMP page so that it points back to the (correct) non-AMP version of the page, and ensure that this page does not contain a noindex tag.

        You would also need to ensure that the non-AMP version of the page has a self-referencing canonical. It should look like this:

        For the URL: https://example.com/pages/page-a/

        This page defines a self-reference canonical and an AMP page:

        <link rel="amphtml" href="https://example.com/amp/page-a/">
        <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/pages/page-a/" />

        Then the AMP page has a canonical pointing back at https://example.com/pages/page-a/

        <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/pages/page-a/" />

        Ready to try Sitebulb?
        Start your free 14 day trial now

        Start Free Trial