When you encounter a canonical not found issue, you can use two different alternative solutions to solve the problem:
- Let the page you redirect the browser to be page B and the first page to be page A. Are there any chances for page B to be revived and rolled out? If there is such a possibility, start optimizing the page immediately and do not make any changes on the canonical link. It will be sufficient to make the page live again.
- If you think the page is not curable, you need to edit the canonical link. Make sure that the URL on page A goes to page A again. In this way, the problem will be eliminated because the canonical link redirects to an already existing page.
Why should you use rel = canonical?
So, optimizing rel = canonical is important. But why? Here are the benefits of rel = canonical links.
- If there is a duplicate content status on your website, the best way to index only one of them is to use canonical links for telling the browser that you are aware of the situation and that they should be found due to functional differences.
- When you use canonical links, even the duplicated page remains accessible to users at all times.