Google has updated its canonical help document to say “Do include a rel=”canonical” link on the canonical page itself (also known as a self-referential canonical).” The advice is not new to Google’s communication but it was just added to the help document.
So Google added two lines to this document, they include:
- Do include a rel=”canonical” link on the canonical page itself (also known as a self-referential canonical).
- We recommend adding this same self-referential rel=”canonical” link element to the canonical page itself as well.
So on this page, this is the self-referential canonical in the source code:
Like I said, this is not new advice. Google’s John Mueller said in 2011 that self-referential canonicals help keep things clean.
Those seem to be the only two lines added or updated in that document.
Forum discussion at X.
