Page indexing · Why pages aren't indexed
Duplicate without user-selected canonical: what it means and how to fix it
Google found this page to be a copy of another one, and because the page names no canonical, Google chose which of the two to index. The one in the report is the one it left out.
What the status means
Search Console puts a page under this status when it is excluded from the index because Google considers it a duplicate and the page does not say, with a canonical tag, which version is the original.
Google then picks a canonical itself, from the redirects, internal links, the sitemap and the content. Open the URL in the URL Inspection tool to see which address it chose: that is the one being indexed in its place.
Why it happens
URL parameters
Tracking and sorting parameters such as ?utm_source= or ?sort=price create a new address for the same content every time.
Two hosts or protocols
The site answers at http and https, or with and without www, and the variants do not redirect to one address.
Trailing slash and case
/shoes and /shoes/, or /Shoes and /shoes, are different URLs to Google when both return the page.
Near-identical pages
Product variants, tag and category pages, or location pages that differ only by a word look like copies of each other.
How to fix it
- Inspect the listed URL in Search Console and note the Google-selected canonical.
- If the listed page is a variant, add a canonical tag to it that names the preferred address, and add a self-referencing canonical to the preferred page itself.
- Redirect http to https and one host to the other with a 301, so the variants stop existing.
- If the listed page should rank on its own, make its content clearly different from the page Google chose, and give it a self-referencing canonical.
- Link internally to the preferred address and list only that address in the sitemap.
- Run the canonical checker below on both addresses, then use Validate fix in Search Console.
Check a page's canonical now
See where its redirects lead, what canonical it declares and whether Google can use it.
Questions
Is "Duplicate without user-selected canonical" an error?
No. Search Console files it under pages that are not indexed, not under errors. It becomes a problem only when the page listed is one you want in search results.
How long does it take to clear after a fix?
Google has to recrawl the pages, which usually takes days to a few weeks. Validate fix in Search Console asks for that recrawl and reports when it is done.
Will adding a canonical tag always fix it?
It moves the page to "Alternate page with proper canonical tag" when Google agrees with you. When the pages are not really the same, or other signals point elsewhere, Google may still choose differently, and the page appears under "Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user".