Problem Overview
Having a canonical tag outside of the <head> section can lead to it being ignored by search engines, negating its intended purpose.
Why Proper Placement Matters
Canonical tags are crucial for indicating the preferred version of a page to search engines. If placed outside the <head>, these tags lose their effectiveness, impacting SEO.
Diagnostic Approach
1. Detection: Identifying canonical tags outside the <head> section.
2. Impact Assessment: Evaluating how this misplacement affects search engine indexing and ranking.
Resolving the Issue
1. Verification: Check if the <head> section contains invalid HTML elements, as these can cause early closure of the <head>, pushing the canonical tag into the <body>.
2. Correction: Move the canonical tag to the correct location within the <head>.
3. Template and Plugin Review: Inspect page templates or plugins that might be incorrectly inserting canonical tags.
Educational Resources
- Understanding Canonical Tags: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/consolidate-duplicate-urls
- HTML Best Practices: https://www.w3.org/TR/html52/
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