"Alternate page with proper canonical tag": what it means and when to act
"Alternate page with proper canonical tag" means this URL carries a canonical tag pointing to a different URL, and Google agreed, so it indexed the other URL instead. It is not an error. It is Google confirming that your canonical tags work. Most sites should simply leave these entries alone.
It needs action only when a page you want indexed on its own is canonicalized to another page by mistake, for example a translated page pointing at the English original, or every paginated page pointing at page one.
Step by step
1. Scan the examples
Open Indexing → Pages → Alternate page with proper canonical tag and look at the URLs. These are normal here:
- URLs with tracking or sorting parameters, such as
?utm_source=or?orderby=price ?replytocom=comment reply links- AMP versions of posts pointing at the main post
- Syndicated or printable copies you canonicalized on purpose
- Product variation URLs that canonicalize to the main product
If every example is one of these, you are done.
2. Look for pages that should stand alone
Flag any example that should be indexed as its own page. Typical mistakes:
- A translated page with a canonical to the source language
- A category's page 2, 3 and so on all pointing at page 1
- Separate products or location pages that a plugin canonicalizes to one parent
- A page where someone typed another URL into the canonical field and forgot
3. Check the canonical on a flagged URL
View source on the flagged page and search for rel="canonical". Then run the URL through URL Inspection and compare User-declared canonical with Google-selected canonical. The user-declared value is what your site printed. If it points at the wrong page, you know the fix is on your side.
4. Fix the canonical at its source
In Hydrogen SEO, every page gets a self-referencing canonical by default. A different value comes from somewhere specific:
- Open the page's SEO Settings sheet (⌘E / Ctrl+E) and check the Canonical URL field. Clear it and save to return to the self-referencing default.
- If the field is empty but the canonical is still wrong, another plugin, such as a multilingual, AMP or page builder add-on, may be printing its own. Two canonical tags in the source mean two plugins are doing the same job; see duplicate meta output.
- For translations, each language version should canonicalize to itself and use hreflang to point at the others.
5. Request indexing for the corrected page
Once the source shows the right canonical, inspect the URL and click Request indexing. There is a daily quota, so do this for the important pages only. The rest will be picked up on the next crawl. Validation is not needed for this status, because it is not an error type.
What the status means
A canonical tag is your hint about which URL in a group of duplicates should be indexed. When the hint is sensible, Google follows it and lists the other URLs here. Compare the two related statuses: "Duplicate without user-selected canonical" means you gave no hint, and "Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user" means Google ignored your hint. This one means Google took it.
When to leave it alone
Nearly always. A rising count here often just means Google is finding more parameter URLs, for example from ads or email campaigns, and correctly folding them into the clean URL. You do not need to block parameters in robots.txt to make the number drop; if Google cannot crawl them, it cannot see the canonical either. Act only on URLs from step 2.
Common questions
Is Alternate page with proper canonical tag bad?
No. It means your canonical tags are working and Google indexed the page you chose.
Should I remove these URLs from my sitemap?
They should not be in it in the first place. A sitemap should list canonical URLs only, and Hydrogen SEO's sitemap lists each post's own permalink.
Why are paginated pages listed here?
Something is canonicalizing page 2 and beyond to page 1. Google recommends each paginated page canonicalize to itself so the posts on later pages can be found.