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WordPress fix guide

Sitemap Contains Non-Canonical URLs on WordPress

The XML sitemap includes URLs that are not the canonical version of their page. This sends conflicting signals to search engines about preferred URLs and wastes crawl budget.

Issue ID: CRAWL-SITEMAP-NONCANONICAL-001Severity: moderateEffort: S

Why this matters

The XML sitemap includes URLs that are not the canonical version of their page. This sends conflicting signals to search engines about preferred URLs and wastes crawl budget. This affects how clearly search engines understand the page and how persuasive it looks in search results.

WordPress fix path

How to fix this on WordPress

Canonical tags are usually handled by your SEO plugin.

  1. 1Open the page in WordPress.
  2. 2Set the canonical URL in Yoast or Rank Math advanced SEO settings.
  3. 3Update the page and verify the rendered <head>.

After you fix it

  • Compare sitemap URLs against their canonical tags and confirm they match

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