The subject of this discussion is an AMP Page URL that references a canonical URL pointing to a page that isn't indexable by search engines.
Why is this important?
For AMP pages to be valid, they must include a canonical link to the corresponding standard (non-AMP) page. If the provided canonical link directs to a non-indexable page, there's a chance search engines will not list the AMP page in their results.
The presence of a valid canonical link on AMP pages ensures that search engines are able to properly attribute the content to the original webpage. An unindexable canonical tag weakens search engines' ability to properly display AMP content in search results.
What does the Optimization check?
This Optimization is triggered if an AMP page's canonical tag is referencing a 'Not Indexable' status URL. It's crucial for the AMP page's presence in search results.
Examples that trigger this Optimization
For instance, let’s consider the following AMP Page URL: https://loudinteractive.com/amp/example-article/
This Optimization would be prompted if its canonical link referred to:
<!doctype html><html amp><head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>Sample Title</title> <link rel="canonical" href="https://loudinteractive.com/articles/example-article/" /> ...</head>...</html>
...and that canonical URL happens to be non-indexable. There are many possible reasons for a URL to be marked as 'non-indexable', such as:
Using a 'noindex' directive
Being self-canonicalized
Being blocked by robots.txt
Returning a non-200 HTTP status code
Poor accessibility to website crawlers
How do you resolve this issue?
It's essential that the canonical URL on the AMP page should link to an indexable page.
The solution is to correct the canonical reference on the AMP page to ensure it accurately points to a corresponding indexable non-AMP page. It's also important to ensure that the non-AMP page includes a self-referencing canonical link. A correct setup would be:
For the non-AMP URL: https://loudinteractive.com/articles/example-article/
This page should self-reference and reference its AMP counterpart as:
<link rel="amphtml" href="https://loudinteractive.com/amp/example-article/"><link rel="canonical" href="https://loudinteractive.com/articles/example-article/" />
And the AMP page should contain a canonical link back to the non-AMP page:
<link rel="canonical" href="https://loudinteractive.com/articles/example-article/" />