When you use the Google Search Console URL inspection tool, Google will show you what it calls the “Google-selected canonical.” Sometimes that URL will look off, weird and even scary, because sometimes it might be a URL for a spammy site.
That is exactly what came up for Dan Lauer who showed this example on Bluesky and wrote, “I have never seen Google selected canonical to be a spammy site before like this? This is for a new clients blog and its not indexed yet. I discovered this inspecting it in GSC.”
Here is his screenshot:
John Mueller from Google said it is hard to know why this is happening in all cases but he did say, “Sometimes domains have used the same interstitial / parked page, which can easily lead to this.” He did encourage Dan to wait a few weeks to see if Google updates the URL to something else.
John Mueller wrote:
These things are impossible to say without more details. Sometimes domains have used the same interstitial / parked page, which can easily lead to this. I’d check back after a few weeks to see how it settles down, otherwise post in the help community with the full details.
I don’t think it is that uncommon to see these weird Google selected canonical URLs in that record but maybe I am wrong.
Forum discussion at Bluesky.
