Canonical pages for products.

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with the "Alternate page with proper canonical tag" error in Google Search Console. This situation often arises when multiple pages, such as those with variations in price or color, are incorrectly canonicalized to a single main page.

Here are some steps you can take to address this issue:

1. Identify Affected Pages: Start by checking the list of pages that are showing this error in Google Search Console. You can find this under the Not indexed tab.
   

2. Review Canonical Tags: Ensure that the canonical tags on your product variation pages are correctly set. Each variation should ideally point to itself if it has unique content (like different prices or colors) rather than pointing to the main product page.
   

3. Update Canonical URLs in Rank Math: If you find that the canonical tags are incorrect, you can update them using the Rank Math plugin. Navigate to the product edit screen and adjust the canonical URL in the Rank Math meta box.
   

4. Implement 301 Redirects: If there are duplicate pages that should not be indexed, consider implementing 301 redirects from those pages to the preferred version.

5. Content Audit: Conduct a content audit to ensure that all pages provide value and are necessary for indexing. Remove or noindex any low-quality or duplicate content that does not serve a purpose.

6. Monitor Changes: After making these adjustments, monitor your Google Search Console for any changes in indexing status over the next few weeks.

For more detailed guidance on fixing this specific error, you can refer to our detailed guide here.

If you continue to experience issues, please reply to this ticket with your site URL so that a human agent can assist you further. Thank you for raising this concern, and we hope this helps resolve your issue!

Sources:
Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag Status in Google Search Console » Rank Math

Hello,

In this case, you can use and customize this filter/code to set those parameterized URLs to noindex:

add_filter( 'rank_math/frontend/robots', function( $robots ) {
$url = home_url( $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] );
if( (strpos($url,'?sku=') !== false) ) {
$robots['index'] = 'noindex';
$robots['follow'] = 'nofollow';
}
return $robots;
});

Here’s a guide you can follow to apply that:
https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

You can add the parameters of the prices, colors, and other variations aside from ?sku= so you can cover all of them.

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

We don’t recommend indexing these URLs as they can create duplicate content issues on your website and Google can penalize your site.

However, if you still want to index them, you can use the following filter code to set self-referencing canonical URLs to these pages:

add_filter( 'rank_math/frontend/canonical', function( $canonical ) {
    $current_url= "https://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
    $canonical = $current_url;
    return $canonical;
});

Here’s how you can add filter/hook to your WordPress site: https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

Hope that helps and please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any other questions.
 
Thank you.

Hello,

We are glad to be of help.

Do you still need our assistance with anything else or can we go ahead to close the ticket?

We look forward to helping you.

Thank you.