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Canonical URLs

When to Use

Configure canonical URLs whenever a page is accessible at more than one URL — this is the norm in Drupal, not the exception. Drupal generates clean aliases via Pathauto but the same node is also reachable at /node/123. Without canonicals, search engines may split ranking signals across duplicate URLs.

Decision

Situation Choice Why
Standard page canonicalization Metatag module canonical tag Signals preferred URL without redirecting users
www vs non-www domain mismatch Redirect module + server redirect 301 redirect consolidates ranking signals
Trailing slash inconsistency Server-level redirect (nginx/Apache) Drupal alone does not enforce this consistently
Alias change (old URL still valid) Redirect module auto-redirect Pathauto integration creates 301 automatically
Multilingual content hreflang + canonical per language Each translation gets its own canonical, linked by hreflang
Pagination (/page=2, /page=3) canonical to page 1 or rel=next/prev Prevents paginated pages from competing
Faceted navigation (views filters) Disallow in robots.txt + canonical to base Query string URLs should not be indexed

Pattern

Metatag Canonical Configuration

Enable the Metatag module and navigate to: /admin/config/search/metatag

Under Global defaults, set the canonical URL token:

Canonical URL: [current-page:url]

This uses Drupal's current page URL, which resolves to the alias (e.g., /blog/my-article) rather than the node path (/node/123).

For per-content-type overrides, add a Content metatag group and set:

Canonical URL: [node:url]

[node:url] resolves to the node's canonical alias including the base URL.

Drupal's Default Canonical Handling

Drupal core outputs a <link rel="canonical"> tag automatically for nodes via html.html.twig. The Metatag module overrides this with configurable tokens. Install Metatag to take control — do not rely on core's default.

Core canonical behavior: - Node pages: resolves to alias if Pathauto alias exists - Views pages: canonical = current URL (may include query strings) - User pages: canonical = /user/[uid]

www vs Non-www Canonicalization

This must be handled at the server or DNS level — Drupal alone cannot reliably redirect all requests.

Nginx — redirect non-www to www: 

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name example.com;
  return 301 https://www.example.com$request_uri;
}

Redirect module can supplement this for Drupal-handled requests: /admin/config/search/redirect → add redirect from http://example.com to https://www.example.com

Also set in settings.php to lock the trusted host pattern: 

$settings['trusted_host_patterns'] = [
  '^www\.example\.com$',
];

Redirect Module — Alias Change Auto-Redirect

When Pathauto regenerates an alias, the Redirect module automatically creates a 301 from the old alias to the new one. Verify this is enabled at: /admin/config/search/redirect/settings → "Automatically create redirects when URL aliases are changed"

Manual redirects: /admin/config/search/redirect/add

Status code decision: - 301 — permanent redirect; passes ranking signals; use for all production URL changes - 302 — temporary redirect; search engines do not pass signals; use for A/B testing or maintenance pages only

Multilingual Canonical + hreflang

Each language version of a page should have: 1. A canonical pointing to its own language URL 2. hreflang annotations pointing to all other language versions

The metatag_hreflang submodule handles this automatically when content is translated. See Metatag for Multilingual for configuration.

Pagination

For paginated content (Views pager, node body pagination):

Page 1: <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/blog">
Page 2: <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/blog">  (points to page 1)

Or use rel="prev" / rel="next" (still useful for Bing even though Google deprecated it):

<link rel="prev" href="https://example.com/blog">
<link rel="next" href="https://example.com/blog?page=2">

In Drupal, add these via hook_page_attachments() or a custom Metatag plugin. For most sites, canonical to page 1 is sufficient.

Common Mistakes

  • Wrong: Relying on Drupal core canonical without Metatag → Right: Install Metatag for configurable, token-driven canonicals
  • Wrong: Canonical URL token that includes query strings ([current-page:url:absolute] on filtered views) → Right: Point to the base view URL, not the filtered URL
  • Wrong: No 301 redirect for www/non-www — letting both versions be indexed → Right: Pick one, redirect the other at the server level before launch
  • Wrong: Internal links using /node/123 paths → Right: Always link using aliases; broken aliases expose node paths to crawlers
  • Wrong: Not enabling auto-redirect on alias change → Right: Enable Redirect module integration with Pathauto immediately after install

See Also