--- title: "Configure Canonical URLs" description: "Ensure a canonical URL is set to avoid duplicate content issues." canonical_url: "https://nuxtseo.com/docs/seo-utils/guides/canonical-url" last_updated: "2026-08-14T15:26:09.870Z" --- ## Introduction A canonical URL tells search engines which version of a page is the "main" one. Nuxt SEO automatically sets this for you using your site URL and current route path. Multiple URLs often point to the same content (www vs non-www, trailing slashes). The canonical URL prevents [duplicate content issues](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359?hl=en) and confusion for end-users. Learn more about canonical URLs with the [Canonical Link Tag](/learn-seo/nuxt/controlling-crawlers/canonical-urls) guide. ## Canonical Head Tag Nuxt SEO automatically sets a canonical URL meta tag for you. This tag is generated from the site URL and the current route path. ```html ``` ### Overriding the Canonical URL The auto-generated tag is registered at low priority, so a page-level `useHead` call with the same `rel="canonical"` link replaces it (canonical links dedupe by `rel`, not by URL): ```ts useHead({ link: [ { rel: 'canonical', href: 'https://example.com/preferred-url' }, ], }) ``` This is the common case for paginated or filtered pages that should all canonicalize to a single parent URL. There's no dedicated option to disable canonical generation for a single page: setting `href` explicitly (as above) is the supported way to change it. Setting `automaticDefaults: false` module-wide turns off canonical generation along with every other automatic default (title template, Open Graph tags, `og:locale`), which is rarely what you want for just the canonical tag. ### canonicalLowercase By default, the canonical URL is generated in lowercase. This is to ensure that the canonical URL is consistent and avoids any issues with case sensitivity. While it's recommended to keep this on, if you need to disable this feature, you can do so by setting `canonicalLowercase` to `false`. ```ts [nuxt.config.ts]twoslash export default defineNuxtConfig({ seo: { canonicalLowercase: false } }) ``` ### canonicalQueryWhitelist The canonical URL is generated from: - `site.url`. Your [Site Config](/docs/site-config/getting-started/introduction) url. - `$route.path`: The current route path. - `canonicalQueryWhitelist`: A list of query parameters that should be included in the canonical URL. By default, the `canonicalQueryWhitelist` includes a number of common query parameters that will modify the page content: - `page` - `sort` - `filter` - `search` - `q` - `category` - `tag` You can override this by providing your own list of query parameters that should be included in the canonical URL. ```ts [nuxt.config.ts]twoslash export default defineNuxtConfig({ seo: { canonicalQueryWhitelist: ['myCustomQuery'] } }) ``` ## Redirect To Canonical In some cases it may be preferred to redirect all non-canonical URLs to the canonical URL. This redirect is optional and disabled by default. ```ts [nuxt.config.ts]twoslash export default defineNuxtConfig({ seo: { redirectToCanonicalSiteUrl: true } }) ``` ## Verifying Check the rendered `` for the tag, either with your browser's view-source or: ```bash curl -s https://example.com/my-page | grep 'rel="canonical"' ``` In production, cross-check against the [URL Inspection report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9012289) in Google Search Console, under "Google-selected canonical" — if it disagrees with your declared canonical, Google is treating another URL as more authoritative (usually a signal of thin or duplicate content, not a tag misconfiguration).