The subject matter here pertains to an AMP Page URL that is tied to a canonical tag indicating a Redirect (3XX) response.
Why is this important?
It is essential for AMP HTML documents to link to the equivalent standard web page or reference themselves if a non-AMP version does not exist. A canonical leading to a redirecting URL might be considered erroneous by search engines.
For AMP pages to be recognized as legitimate, including a proper canonical tag is crucial. This tag should direct to the original standard page. If there is a redirect in place, search engines might bypass crawling it, hindering the discovery and visibility of AMP versions in search results due to the mixed signals sent.
What does the Optimization check?
Optimization will be activated for any AMP Page URL featuring a canonical tag that directs to a URL exhibiting a Redirect (3XX) when an attempt to crawl it is made.
Examples that trigger this Optimization
Imagine you have an AMP page with the URL: https://loudinteractive.com/amp/article123/
This Optimization would be activated should the URL contain a canonical tag as follows:
<!doctype html><html amp> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>Exceptional Article</title> <link rel="canonical" href="https://loudinteractive.com/articles/article123/" /> ... </head> ...</html>
Where this canonical URL returns a 301 (Permanent Redirect) header response such as:
HTTP/... 301 Moved Permanently...
URLs with various other 'redirect' statuses would likewise activate the Optimization (i.e., any other 3XX response).
How do you resolve this issue?
The appropriate action is making sure that the canonical points to a URL with a 200 OK status rather than one that redirects.
To address the issue, the AMP page canonical should be corrected to point to the appropriate non-AMP version with a 200 OK response. Additionally, the non-AMP page should feature a self-referential canonical tag such as:
For the URL: https://loudinteractive.com/articles/article123/ the page should link to itself and its AMP variant:
<link rel="amphtml" href="https://loudinteractive.com/amp/article123/"><link rel="canonical" href="https://loudinteractive.com/articles/article123/" />
Then, ensure the AMP page has a canonical referencing the non-AMP version:
<link rel="canonical" href="https://loudinteractive.com/articles/article123/" />