Crystal Ball checks covered

CANONICAL_CONFLICT, MIXED_PROTOCOL_REDIRECT, WWW_NONWWW_CONFLICT

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What this warning means

This warning means the site sends inconsistent signals about its preferred URL. Unaligned http, https, www, non-www, trailing-slash, and .html variants can create duplicate routes or unnecessary redirects.

  • The canonical link in the HTML should match the final preferred URL.
  • Redirects should not strip HTTPS or bounce through unnecessary versions.

Common causes

Conflicts often come from host control-panel redirects, .htaccess redirects, canonical tags in templates, CMS settings, and old sitemap URLs disagreeing with each other.

  • A host alias may redirect https www to http non-www.
  • A page canonical may point to http while the final page is https.
  • A sitemap may list URLs that are not the preferred public URLs.

How to fix it

Pick one canonical format, usually https non-www or https www, then align every signal to that format.

  • Set the host-level canonical URL to the preferred HTTPS version.
  • Make all sitemap URLs use the preferred format.
  • Use self-referencing canonical tags on indexable pages.
  • Avoid redirect chains like http to https to www to non-www.

How to verify

Check all common variants and confirm they end at one final 200 URL. Then inspect the page source and sitemap to confirm the canonical link and sitemap loc match that final URL.

  • Test http://domain, https://domain, http://www, and https://www.
  • Test with and without trailing slashes where clean URLs are used.
  • Check Search Console after recrawling important pages.

FAQ

Is a self-referencing canonical required?

It is not required for every page to function, but it is a strong, clear signal when pages have clean canonical URLs.

Should http URLs remain in the sitemap?

No. The sitemap should list the canonical indexable URLs you want crawlers to use.

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