Audit rules

Canonical Target Not Indexable

The canonical URL points to another page that answers with status 400 or higher, or carries noindex (probe "canonical_target"). In a QuikSEO audit, a failure of this rule has error severity and counts against the score. Below are the exact condition, its exceptions and the sources behind it, followed by the other rules of the same group.

01 — Definition

How This Rule Is Checked

The rule is a pure function of the fetched page: no extra requests, no account settings. The same input always gives the same result.

Rule Severity and Score

Rule id: canonical.target_not_indexable
Group: Canonical
Severity of a failure: Error
Counts in the score: Yes, whenever it applies to the page
Required for a score: No

Condition and Exceptions

Condition: Probe canonical_targets (every distinct declared target other than the page, at most 3): any target with status ≥ 400 or noindex → fail; otherwise any target that redirects (3xx) → review (warning) with the redirect as evidence
Exceptions: Self-canonical → not_applicable; no probe → not_checked; a target that could not be fetched → not_checked

Sources and Project Decision

Sources: RFC 6596: The Canonical Link Relation (IETF, Q74)
How to specify a canonical URL with rel="canonical" and other methods (Google Search Central, Q29)
Project decision: Severity error is a project decision [D]. Every distinct target is probed (at most 3). A target that redirects is review with the redirect as evidence; a probe that could not reach the target (error, no status) is not_checked.

02 — Canonical

Other Rules in This Group

The other checks of the same group, each with its own condition and sources.

Conflicting Canonicalscanonical.conflict
Canonical Differs From Final URLcanonical.differs_from_final_url
Canonical Invalidcanonical.invalid
Canonical Missingcanonical.missing