URL Canonicalization Test
What is it?
Test your site for potential URL canonicalization issues. Canonicalization describes how a site can use slightly different URLs for the same page (e.g., if http://www.example.com and http://example.com displays the same page but do not resolve to the same URL). If this happens, search engines may be unsure about which URL is the correct one to index. Learn more about canonicalization issues.
Pass rate:
-
Top 100 websites: 93%This value indicates the percent of top 100 most visited websites in the US that pass this test (in the past 12 months).
-
All websites: 71%This value indicates the percent of all websites analyzed in SEO Site Checkup (500,000+) in the past 12 months.
| 2021 | 92% |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 96% |
| 2023 | 97% |
| 2024 | 93% |
100
75
50
25
0
How do I fix it?
In order to pass this test you must consider using a 301 re-write rule in your .htaccess file so that both addresses (http://example.com and http://www.example.com) resolve to the same URL.
- If you want to redirect http://www.example.com to http://example.com, you can use this:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "http\:\/\/example\.com\/" [R=301,L]
- If you want to redirect http://example.com to http://www.example.com, you can use this:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.example.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
Note that you must put the above lines somewhere after RewriteEngine On line.
