How to approach the work
Inventory the ways a visitor can reach the same content: HTTP and HTTPS, host variants, parameters, trailing slashes and index files. Choose one stable destination. Align internal links, sitemap entries and canonical tags so they point to that destination rather than sending conflicting signals.
What to check and change
Check the canonical in the rendered page and the original response. Make sure its destination is accessible and appropriate. Translated pages normally need their own self-referencing canonical plus language alternates; canonicalising every language to English can undermine the intended language structure.
A practical example
Example: a product can be reached through several category paths. If those pages contain the same product information, choose its permanent product URL and link there consistently. If two pages describe different products, do not merge their signals simply because the names are similar.
What to measure and ask your agency
Monitor Google-selected canonicals for a sample of commercial pages. Your SEO agency should distinguish duplicate management from consolidation: a removed article with a replacement may need a redirect, while a necessary parameter variant may remain accessible with a canonical hint.
Continue reading
Technical reference: Google Search Central
Work with an SEO agency
Send your website, target market and the business outcome you want. We will discuss the technical and content priorities, who will implement the work and how the outcome will be measured.
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