Canonical tag checker · updated 10 November 2026

How to add a canonical tag in WordPress

WordPress adds a canonical tag to posts and pages by default, so if yours is missing, a theme or plugin is usually removing it. An SEO plugin such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math lets you check and set it per page.

Steps

1. View the page source (Ctrl+U) and search for rel="canonical" to see what is there now.
2. If it is missing, switch to a default theme for a minute. If the tag returns, your theme or a plugin is stripping it.
3. In your SEO plugin, open the page's advanced settings and set the canonical URL to the full https address you want indexed.
4. Leave the field empty to use the page's own address. That is correct for most pages.

How to check it worked

Reload the page, view source again and confirm there is exactly one canonical link in the head.

Good to know

Menu names differ between plugins and versions. If you run more than one SEO plugin, you can end up with two canonical tags, so keep one.

Check your site now

Free, no signup. Every finding comes with the fix. The tag in your WordPress site is checked along with the rest of the page.

Related guides

• Canonical tag checker
• canonical tag in Shopify
• canonical tag in Next.js
• canonical tag in Webflow
• meta description in WordPress
• Open Graph tags in WordPress

Written by Marlo's maker. Platform menus change, so if a step does not match what you see, check the platform's own help. 4 platforms covered.