Canonical URL – New Content NOT Indexed by Google

We’re not sure at what point this feature was added; but we’ve noticed recently that when you duplicate a post, the plugin is now auto-populating the ‘Canonical URL’ field within the advanced tab.

Whilst we can understand the logic behind this functionality were somebody duplicating content with the purpose of only changing a few minor pieces of content, we think in reality most users (certainly non-technical users) would use this plugin in the way that we do; duplicating a particular page purely to retain it’s layout and particular content blocks – BUT with the aim of updating the actual page content almost in it’s entirety.

It would be nice to see a setting within the plugin settings that allows you to toggle this feature on or off at a global level. We fear our end clients will now be producing content with a canonical URL set, meaning any new content won’t be getting indexed by Google.

While a development or SEO agency would understand these advanced settings (now that we know it’s doing it in the first place!), we’re not sure you can expect non-technical personnel / content creators to have to delve into advanced settings.

We’ve now got to communicate with about 50 or so clients who use this plugin, explain to them what a canonical URL is and get them to go back and check any content they have created over however many months and clear this field back out!

• This topic was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Akiko Design.