rendering.canonical-changed

WarningSEO audit--render

JavaScript changes the canonical URL after load, sending conflicting signals.

What to change

Emit the final canonical in the server HTML and do not modify it client-side.

The documentation on developers.google.com

A finding of this rule on a page carries the exact edits for that page: the markup it quotes, and what to write instead.

When it runs

Runs with --render, on the command or the local server. A warning is a problem that costs a page ranking, clicks or citations. Each finding takes 5 points off the page's score.

The severity here is the rule's usual one: a finding can be raised or lowered when the page gives a reason.

Run it, or skip it

Check a page for this rule alone, after a fix for instance:

npx @rivi-software/agentic-seo-check audit https://example.com --render --rule rendering.canonical-changed

Or from an assistant, with the MCP tool seo_audit_page:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "render": true,
  "rules": [
    "rendering.canonical-changed"
  ]
}

To leave it out of an audit, pass --disable rendering.canonical-changed on the command, or disableRules: ["rendering.canonical-changed"] to a tool.

All 12 rules