Google Debunks Cross-Domain Canonical De-Indexing Reports

Google's John Mueller weighed in on a report of a website being de-indexed due to a cross-domain canonical issue.

A cross-domain canonical is a meta tag that indicates two or more websites have identical content. However, Google treats this tag as only a hint and does not always follow it.

A Redditor claimed their site was de-indexed after discovering that a casino website had been canonicalized to theirs, despite having no similar content.

Mueller suggested using the Search Console's live URL checker to review how Google renders web pages. He also recommended running automated tests before pushing sites live to catch errors early on.