---
title: "Make every canonical signal agree · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/redirects-and-canonicals/canonical-signals
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Make every canonical signal agree

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

- Level: Required
- Chapter: [Redirects and canonicals](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/redirects-and-canonicals)
- Rule: Give each page one canonical address, and make the canonical tag, sitemap, Open Graph address, hreflang links and internal links all use exactly that address.
- How: Build the canonical from the public origin and the page's path, as an absolute, self-referencing HTTPS address without tracking parameters or a fragment. Put exactly one `<link rel="canonical">` in the `<head>`, because Google ignores it in the body and drops conflicting ones. For non-HTML copies such as Markdown or PDF, send it as a `Link: <…>; rel="canonical"` header. Use the tag or the header, not both. Never point a canonical at a redirect, a 404 or a `noindex` page. Don't use `noindex` or robots.txt to choose a canonical, because they hide the page instead.
- Check: A test reads each page's canonical, `og:url` and sitemap entry and expects the same address, answering 200 without a redirect. Each page has exactly one canonical tag. The Lighthouse `canonical` audit passes.

Example:

```html
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/guides/caching">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/guides/caching">
```

```http
link: <https://example.com/guides/caching>; rel="canonical"
```

**For agents:** if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in `Based on the Agent Wranglers website playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/redirects-and-canonicals/canonical-signals`.

- Previous: [Avoid meta refresh and JavaScript redirects](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/redirects-and-canonicals/client-side-redirects)
- Next: [Move a site or domain without losing links](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/redirects-and-canonicals/site-moves)
- [Redirects and canonicals](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/redirects-and-canonicals)