Essential steps to fix the “Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag” error

Updated on: Jun 7th, 2025 5 min readWritten by: Approved by: linkedin

Last Updated on June 7, 2025 by Admin

The "Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag" issue in your Google Search Console occurs mainly when Google discovers different versions of one webpage, all bearing the same canonical tag. It may prevent a search engine from choosing a certain page to be indexed and ranked. With the help of this guide, you will have thoroughly comprehended the issue and solutions to make website’s pages properly indexed and optimized for search engines.

What is "Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag" error?

The "Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag" error detects when Google finds when your webpage with the canonical tag pointing to another URL. Then search engine struggles to determine which webpage to index and include in serp. The issue might lead to indexing troubles, which can damage your website’s SEO results.

Read also: 5 Best ways to remove URLs from Google Search

Reasons That Cause "Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag" Issue

Several factors contribute to this issue, which can be:

  1. AMP version of web pages: If you have both Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and non-AMP versions of the same content, it can cause an "Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag" issue. Here, the two versions possibly having the same canonical tag could confuse search engines.
  2. Protocol like www/non-www http/https: The different versions of your site’s URL that have both the “www” and “non-www” versions, as well as the “http” and “https” versions of the same page, can also be a reason why HTTP status errors occur. The search engine can recognize duplicate content with the same canonical tag.
  3. Dynamic URLs in Case of Search Parameters: The sharing of dynamic URLs produced by search parameters or filters can cause a page to have many versions with the same content. The "Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag" problem may arise if search engines detect pages with the same canonical tag.
  4. Pagination: The same problem may also occur due to pagination, but in this case, the pages with the same canonical attribute as the main page are the most problematic. Search engines may have problems judging which one of these two pages must be indexed and ranked higher.
Read also: Step by step guide to fix “Blocked due to other 4xx issue”

How to Fix "Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag" Issue?

Follor the step-by-step guide to fix the issue:

  1. Find the Pages Affected by This Error: The first step in fixing "Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag" error is to locate the affected page. Go to Google search console -> Indexing -> Pages. Under the Not-indexed section, the alternative page’s URL affected by the canonical tag can be found.
  2. Use a rel=”canonical” Link Tag: When you finally identify the pages affected, fix them; add the canonical tag before your HTML code’s section. Check that the href attribute points to the primary page version that you would like to index by search engines.
  3. Have the canonical web page in XML Sitemap: On your XML sitemap, just select the canonical version of each page. Remove any non-canonical URLs from your sitemap. Provide only the links to the primary versions of the pages.
  4. Use 301 redirects to the original web page: If your website has non-canonical pages, report them as 301 redirects to their canonical pages. This brings the link equity together and shows to search engines which page is the original.
  5. Always Prefer HTTPS over HTTP: Search engines prefer HTTPS websites as they provide a secure browsing environment. Ensure that all website pages use the HTTPS protocol to achieve successful encryption. Update the canonical tags and internal links in HTTPS format to the HTTPS versions of your pages.
  6. Update content consistently for the Canonical (Original) Web page: To prove the value and power of your canonical pages to the search engines, you must update and improve the content regularly.
  7. Use Hreflang Tag in case of Multilingual Web pages: If your website is multi-language, you must use the hreflang tag to tell the search engine the relationship between the pages. Check whether hreflang tags are correctly implemented and point to the language versions of the canonical pages.
  8. Internal Linking to the Canonical webpage: When internal linking is done within the website, always refer to the canonical version of the destination page. Do not link to non-canonical URLs, as it can confuse the search engine and divert the link equity of your canonical pages.
  9. Fix the redirect chain: Canonical tags and sub-chains may lead to the "Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag" issue, reducing site performance. Update the redirects to the only canonical version of each page without redirecting to multiple pages. This assists search engines in effectively locating your original content and crawling your canonical pages, leading to enhanced overall search engine rankings.

Conclusion

Resolving the "Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag" problem is a critical step in ensuring that a site is healthy and its SEO is optimized. At AlgoSaga digital marketing agency, our SEO experts know the technical SEO very well to resolve the canonical tag issues and improve the website’s overall performance. Reach out to us now for details on how we can help you make the best of online marketing.