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We have covered examples of Google selecting the wrong canonical URL from within your domain, but what about when Google shows you a domain name that is not yours? What if the Google URL inspection tool shows a domain name that you do not own as the Google-selected canonical?

I mean, this isn’t new, we’ve heard of this before but it is generally rare to see.

Traian Neacsu hasd this issue and posted about it on X – Traian wrote, “I have never seen Google selecting a different domain name as canonical, @JohnMu. Could this be some sort of spam?” John won’t reply, he has not replied to a post on X in months now.

Here is a screenshot of this:

But as Darth Autocrat (Lyndon NA) replied, this is a form of spam where you basically copy the content from a page and put it on a different domain name and outrank them for it. Google then consolidates it to the domain it thinks is the legit one and clearly here, Google is getting it wrong.

Darth wrote, “Yes, it can be a form of Spam (negative SEO). We call it a “Canonical Confusion” attack.”

Of course, this can be done by accident by the site owner but I think in this case it is not. The canonical URL Google selected goes through some 301 redirect to a super spammy site.

So what do you do to fix it? Try to build up your site’s reputation. This goes back to Google’s advice on copy cat sites outranking your original content. It sometimes comes down to your site having quality issues or some sort of penalty.

Forum discussion at X.

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