Alternate page with proper canonical tag

[doc_choc]

Working on our SEO and noticing through the Google Search Console, that we are generating a large number of 'Alternate page with proper canonical tag'

Any idea why we are creating so many and how do we go about fixing them?

Also how detrimental is this to our SEO if we do not fix them?

[Breffni]

Hi @doc_choc, 👋 thanks for your post. 

I had a look and didn't come across any other cases with this particular message. I'm not sure if this is something Square or Google would be able to shed more light on. 

I can check with our team today though. Can you share a screenshot of how that looks on your end and also if it's associated with any particular pages, can you give me the name of them? 

[doc_choc]

Hi @Breffni , here we go.

I believe its something to do with the extra gubbins that appears at the end of a urls eg, ..../719?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=38

Just need to know if this needs to be managed my end especially if its detrimental to the SEO, how to limit it from happening and how to correct it when then they do appear.

[Sineaid · Accepted solution]

Hi @doc_choc!

I’m just following up on this for Breffni while she is out of the office. 

I’ve taken a look at the support articles from Google Console on this, and found what I feel is a clear explanation here. 

Based on the above, my understanding of this indexing status is that it would not be regarded as an error, and seeing this status would not be detrimental to your SEO, as the alternate page is being correctly pointed to the indexed page.