E-COMMERCE & LOCAL SEO
Product Variant Canonical Checker
Variants such as colours and sizes often get their own URLs. Both common approaches work: every variant names the main product as canonical, or every variant is its own page with variant markup. Problems come from variants of the same kind pointing in different directions, which leaves search engines guessing which URL to index.
- Checks the live page
- Public addresses only
- Free, no sign-up
- CheckStatus of each URL
- CheckSelf canonicals mixed with canonicals to another URL
- CheckVariants pointing to different canonicals
- CheckStandalone variants with the same title or SKU
Free
no sign-up
Live
fetched when you run the check
5 checks
what the tool looks at
30 a minute
checks per visitor, to keep it free
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HOW IT WORKS
How to use the Product Variant Canonical Checker
The main product URL and up to 9 variant URLs.
Enter the main product URL.
Paste the URLs your colour or size options link to.
Make every variant follow the same approach.
WHAT IT CHECKS
What it looks at, and how to read it.
Each URL’s status, canonical, title, SKU and price, and checks on how the variants fit together.
What it checks
- Status of each URL
- Self canonicals mixed with canonicals to another URL
- Variants pointing to different canonicals
- Standalone variants with the same title or SKU
- ProductGroup or inProductGroupWithID variant markup
How to read the results
- Consolidating suits variants that differ little (shoe sizes); standalone pages suit variants people search for by name (a phone colour or storage size).
The concepts behind it, in the SEO glossary: Canonical tag.
GOOD TO KNOW
Common mistakes, an example and the limits.
Common mistakes
- Self-canonical variants that all use the parent’s title.
- Canonicals pointing to a variant URL that redirects.
A worked example
A phone’s black variant is its own canonical while the blue one points to the main product, so only black can rank on its own.
Limitations
- Checks the HTML the server sends. Content a page adds with JavaScript after loading is not seen.
- Some sites block or challenge automated requests; then the result shows what a crawler without a browser would get.
- Checks only the URLs you enter; variants chosen with a script that never changes the URL have no URL to check.
FAQ
Questions about the Product Variant Canonical Checker
Straight answers about what it does and where its limits are.
Should variants be indexed separately?
Only if people search for them separately and each page shows a distinct product. Otherwise consolidate.
Need this for a whole website, over time?
The NdovuSEOLabs platform connects your own Search Console, analytics and server logs, and audits every page on a schedule.