How to fix non self canonical on PrestaShop
Audit every page whose canonical tag points to a different URL, then either correct it to self-reference or confirm the cross-reference is intentional and correct.
Steps for PrestaShop
- PrestaShop generates canonical URLs automatically for product and category pages through its core SEO settings.
- Go to Shop Parameters → Traffic & SEO in the PrestaShop admin panel. Check the 'Set up URLs' section and ensure your preferred domain format (www vs non-www, http vs https) is correctly configured — this affects what the canonical outputs.
- For individual product pages: Catalog → Products → edit the product → go to the 'SEO' tab and check the 'Friendly URL' field. The canonical is built from this; correct it if it's wrong.
- If a third-party SEO module (e.g., SEO Expert, Advanced SEO) is installed, open the module configuration and look for per-page canonical override settings.
- Clear the PrestaShop cache (Advanced Parameters → Performance → Clear cache) and view-source the frontend page to confirm the canonical is correct.
What is non self canonical?
A canonical tag is a small snippet of HTML code, placed in the `<head>` of a page, that tells Google "this is the definitive version of this content." A self-canonical means the tag points back to the page itself — the norm for any page you want indexed. A non-self-canonical means the tag points to a different URL, effectively telling Google: "don't index me, index that other page instead." This is sometimes intentional (e.g., a filtered product-listing page deferring to the main category page), but when it happens by accident, Google will ignore the page entirely and index the wrong destination instead.
When a page has a non-self-canonical by mistake, Google treats it as a duplicate and removes it from search results — meaning all the organic traffic that page could earn is lost. If important product, category, or landing pages are accidentally canonicalized to the wrong URL, your store effectively disappears from Google for those queries. Even if Google doesn't fully honour the tag, it still dilutes your crawl budget and creates confusing ranking signals. Fixing accidental non-self-canonicals can restore lost rankings quickly, while verifying intentional ones ensures you're not accidentally de-indexing pages you need.
See the complete Non self canonical guide for every platform and the full background.
Not sure if your PrestaShop store has this?
Run a free SEOLZ scan — we’ll find non self canonical and every other issue across your whole site.
Scan my site free