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Set canonical, hreflang and other link tags at the edge ​

The Canonical, Hreflang and Head links edits of the rule editor set the link tags in the page head that bots receive: the canonical URL, the hreflang set, and any other <link rel> tag.

One rule can fix a canonical on a single page or give every page of a section the right canonical and language alternates.

A new rule for the 44 pages under /docs/engine/ on edgecomet.com, named "Canonical on /docs/engine/" by the editor. The Canonical edit has one step, Set https://edgecomet.com{url_path}. What each page gets reads Changes 44 and All 44, and each engine docs page, such as /docs/engine/integrations/cloudflare-worker.html and /docs/engine/, goes from Now "Not set" to a canonical URL pointing at itself

Fix a canonical tag ​

  1. In the rule editor, choose the pages.
  2. Click Canonical under the filters, or choose it in Add an edit.
  3. Enter the canonical URL. For Multiple pages, build it from the URL with variables, such as https://www.example.com{url_path}, which keeps the path and drops every query parameter, or edit the current canonical with a step such as Regex Replace.
  4. Check what each page gets under the edit, then save and deploy.

If a page has no canonical tag, the rule adds one to the head.

Typical canonical fixes:

ProblemRule
Faceted or sorted URLs, such as /catalog/shoes?color=red&sort=price, compete with the main pageMultiple pages, filter URL Contains /catalog/, canonical step Regex Replace \?.*$ with nothing, which strips the query string
Pages moved in a migration still point their canonical to the old pathFilter Canonical URL Contains /legacy/, step Find & Replace /legacy/blog/ with /blog/
The canonical points to the http or non-www hostStep Find & Replace http://example.com with https://www.example.com
A product page has a broken canonicalOne page, canonical set to the page's own URL

For how canonicals affect crawling, see Crawl budget and crawl waste explained.

Add or replace hreflang tags ​

The Hreflang field writes a set of <link rel="alternate" hreflang> tags, one row per language:

  1. Choose Hreflang in Add an edit.

  2. Click + Add language and enter a Language code, such as en-gb, and a URL template, such as https://example.com/uk{url_path}.

  3. Or click + Add multiple to add a group at once. Quick Sets add Western Europe (7 languages), Nordics (5), DACH (3), APAC (5) or Americas (4), and Or Pick Individually picks single languages, including x-default for the fallback page. URL Template For All sets one template for every row, where {lang} becomes the language code, such as https://example.com/{lang}{url_path}. Languages already in the list are skipped.

    The Add languages dialog. Quick Sets: Western Europe (7), Nordics (5), DACH (3), APAC (5) and Americas (4). Or Pick Individually lists language codes with their names, with en, de, fr, es, it, pt and nl ticked. URL Template For All holds https://{lang}.edgecomet.com{url_path}, with the note "{lang} becomes the language code, {url_path} the page path." The footer reads "7 selected" with Cancel and Add 7

  4. Choose what happens to hreflang tags the page already has: Merge with existing updates the URL of a language that is present and adds the rest, and Replace all removes "every alternate not listed below". A new set starts on Replace all.

    The Hreflang edit after Add multiple: Merge with existing or Replace all, with Replace all chosen and the note "every alternate not listed below is removed". Rows of Language and URL template list en, de, fr, es, it and nl, each with a template such as https://en.edgecomet.com{url_path}, a variable button and a remove button, followed by + Add language and + Add multiple

A set holds up to 500 languages and counts as one change in the rule.

Because the URL template is built from each page's own path, one rule that applies to every language version of a section gives each page the same complete set. That fixes missing return links, where page A lists page B but page B does not list page A.

Head links in Add an edit adds <link> tags to the head. Click Add link and enter a Rel, such as preconnect, and an Href. EdgeComet adds each link and skips one when the page already has a link with the same rel and href.

Find the pages to fix ​

What you should see ​

On a rule for multiple pages, the canonical edit lists the canonical each page gets. After the deploy and the recache, Page Analysis > Cache shows the new tags in the copy bots receive.

If it does not work ​

The canonical or hreflang did not change ​

Check that the rule is on the Live tab and the page has been recached. If several rules set the canonical on the same page, the one that went live last wins: paste the URL into Search or paste a URL on the Edge SEO page to see the order. Page Analysis > Cache shows which value bots get.