Duplicate without user-selected canonical
Duplicate without user-selected canonical
Google found copies and you did not say which URL is the one to keep.
This status shows up when the same content is available at more than one URL and none of them declares a canonical, or the canonical is missing from the HTML Google fetched.
Pick one URL. Put a rel=canonical on every copy, including the winner, pointing at that URL. Redirect the copies when they should not exist as separate addresses.
Parameter URLs, http and https, and www and bare hosts are the usual pairs. The free check flags a missing or mismatched canonical on the URL you paste.
What to check
- Choose the URL that should rank and use it in the canonical, the sitemap, and internal links.
- Add the canonical in the server HTML, not only after hydration.
- Redirect exact duplicates instead of leaving both URLs live.
Fix prompt
Example prompt
Google treats this URL as a duplicate and there is no user-selected canonical. Add a rel=canonical in the server HTML pointing at the URL that should be indexed, and redirect exact copies to it. Do not call an indexing API.
Check a URL · Crawlers · Glossary