Trakis

Trakis · Rules

Canonical missing

Pages without a <link rel="canonical">. The canonical tells search engines which address is the real one when the same page can be reached several ways — with tracking parameters, sorting, or a trailing slash. Without it, they guess.

WarningINDEX-003 · Indexation · checked on every page

Where it usually comes from

Themes and custom templates that do not print a canonical, or an SEO plugin switched off for some page types.

How to fix it

  • Every page should name its own address as canonical — the full address, with https and the site's one host.
  • Put it in the layout, built from the current address without tracking parameters.
layout
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com{{ page.path }}">

Shown for an example shop at www.example.com. In a Trakis report the same fix comes with your own addresses and the list of your pages it applies to.

How to check it yourself

View the page source and search for rel="canonical". There should be exactly one, pointing at the address you want indexed.

What it looks like in a report

Warning The page does not declare a canonical URL. · /product/* · 150 pages

One template without a canonical; adding it there covers all 150 pages. (An example shop; the numbers are illustrative.)

How the audit counts it

INDEX-003 is a warning in the indexation category, and weighs moderately in that category’s score. When it appears on many pages built from the same template, the report shows it once, with the number of pages it covers — because one change in the template fixes all of them.

If the finding is deliberate on your site, it can be accepted as intentional in the report. It then leaves the list and the score, and comes back on its own if what it shows changes.

Other indexation checks

Find it on your site

A Trakis audit runs this check and the other 65 on your site, and tells you on how many pages each one sits. Or go back to all the rules.