After a migration, canonical URLs should consistently identify the preferred public version of each page. A site can load correctly for visitors while still declaring an old domain, staging address or duplicate path in its canonical metadata.
IN THIS ARTICLE
01 Check representative page types
- Open the new public homepage, a post, a page, a category and a product if applicable.
- Inspect the page source or an appropriate diagnostic tool for the canonical link.
- Compare the declared URL with the intended final URL, including HTTPS, hostname and path.
- Request the canonical target and confirm it reaches the correct public content without an avoidable redirect chain.
- Compare the same pages with the sitemap and internal navigation links.
02 Locate conflicting settings
Review WordPress home and siteurl settings, any configuration overrides, SEO plugin canonical fields and theme output. A page-level SEO override can survive a site-wide URL change. Multiple SEO components may emit conflicting canonical tags, so choose one clearly owned source of metadata instead of adding a second tag to compensate.
03 Example: inspect the canonical for a migrated service page
Suppose the final public page is https://www.example.com/services/. Its existing HTML may contain the following canonical link in the document head. This is an inspection example, not a second tag to paste into a WordPress post.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/services/">Compare it with the page you actually opened. A value such as https://staging.example.com/services/ points to the wrong environment. A homepage URL also needs investigation when this service page is intended to have its own canonical address.
Expected result: one intended canonical declaration for this page, consistent with its public HTTPS URL, internal links and sitemap. Correct the responsible WordPress or SEO setting, clear the relevant cache and inspect the served HTML again. The declaration remains a search-engine signal; it does not redirect visitors or guarantee immediate indexing changes.
Is a canonical tag the same as a redirect?
No. A canonical is a signal about the preferred URL for similar content; it does not move a visitor to another page. A redirect changes the request destination. Use redirects for old URLs that should permanently move, and use canonical metadata consistently on the pages that remain accessible.
Will search engines always choose my declared canonical?
No. Search engines consider several signals and can select a different URL when the evidence conflicts. Align redirects, internal links, sitemaps, HTTPS and canonical tags, then allow time for recrawling. Do not change canonical settings repeatedly just because reporting has not updated immediately.
04 Verify the corrected result
Clear only the caches that can serve stale metadata and inspect the actual public HTML again. Check language variants and paginated or filtered content according to the site's SEO strategy rather than forcing every page to the homepage. Record any intentionally different canonical targets. If an old domain remains in search reports, use the search-engine inspection tools to compare the currently served page with the last indexed version before deciding that the migration is still broken.