Spammy Canonical URLs Confound Google Search Console Users

Google's Search Console has been showing users what it calls the 'Google-selected canonical' URL when inspecting a page. Recently, Dan Lauer discovered that this URL sometimes points to a spammy site, even for pages not yet indexed. This unusual behavior was highlighted by a screenshot shared on Bluesky.

John Mueller from Google explained that it's difficult to pinpoint the reason behind this anomaly but suggested that domains using interstitial or parked pages might be responsible. He advised Dan Lauer to wait a few weeks and see if the URL updates to something else.