Alternate page with proper canonical tag
Your canonical tag pointed Google at another URL and Google agreed. Usually nothing to do, except in three cases worth a five-minute check.
Alternate page with proper canonical tag means this URL has a
rel="canonical" pointing at another URL, and Google accepted it: the other URL is
indexed, and this one is filed as its alternate. Google’s
Page indexing help is
unusually direct about it: “This page correctly points to the canonical page,
which is indexed, so there is nothing you need to do.”
It is the success state for duplicates. If you added canonical tags to clean up Duplicate without user-selected canonical, this is where those URLs are supposed to end up.
When it is genuinely nothing
| The URL | Its canonical points at |
|---|---|
| The page with tracking or session parameters | The clean URL |
| A sort or filter view of a listing | The unsorted listing |
| A print or “amp” version | The main article |
| A syndicated copy of your article on your own other domain | The original |
In each row the content is indexed once, under the URL you chose. A growing count here usually means more duplicates are being handled, not that something broke.
The three cases worth checking
1. A page you wanted indexed is in this list
Google followed your canonical, so if a page you care about is here, your canonical points away from it. The usual causes are templates:
- A canonical hard-coded to the homepage across a section, or across the site.
- Paginated pages pointing at page 1. Google’s own pagination guidance says not to: give each page in a sequence its own canonical URL. Pointing them all at page 1 hides everything listed only on pages 2 onwards.
- Language versions pointing at the English page. That tells Google only the
English page should be indexed. Language versions are linked to each other with
hreflang, and each one’s canonical should be itself.
Fix the template, then check one affected URL with Test live URL in URL Inspection to confirm the new canonical is served.
2. The canonical target is not actually indexed
The status says the target is indexed, but it is worth confirming for the pages that matter, especially after a migration or a template change. Inspect the target URL itself. If it is not indexed, the problem is there, and this URL is simply pointing at it.
3. The count jumped after a deploy
A sudden rise right after a release is the signature of a canonical bug shipped in a template. Open three or four of the newly listed URLs and read their canonical tags. If they point somewhere you did not intend, roll the template back first and investigate second.
What not to do
- Do not press Validate fix expecting these to become Indexed. They are alternates; staying here is the correct outcome.
- Do not remove canonical tags to shrink the report. Without them, the same URLs move to Duplicate without user-selected canonical and Google picks the winner itself.
When the answer is a different status
If Google ignored your canonical and picked another URL, the status is Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user, covered in duplicate without user-selected canonical. If the URL redirects rather than declaring a canonical, see page with redirect. The full list of causes is in why is my page not indexed.