Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user: what to do

Google’s Page indexing report gives the definition: the page is marked as canonical for a set of pages, but Google thinks another URL makes a better canonical. The page declared itself the original. Google indexed a different one.

Google weighs a canonical tag with everything else it knows about the two addresses. The tag loses when the rest of the site contradicts it.

• Internal links point mostly at the other address.
• The sitemap lists the other address.
• A redirect, somewhere, leads to the other address.
• The other address is the secure version, or the shorter one.
• The two pages are almost the same, and the other has more links from outside.

Open the address in URL Inspection. It shows the user-declared canonical and the Google-selected canonical. The second is the page that is actually indexed. Open both pages side by side and decide which one you want.

Change your canonical tags to match Google’s choice. The status clears, and the signals agree. This is often the right answer for two near-identical pages.

Line up every signal behind the page you want.

1. Point internal links at it, and only at it.
2. List it, and not the other, in the sitemap.
3. Redirect the other address to it, if the other is not needed.
4. Make the two pages differ, if both are needed: different titles, headings and content.
5. Check that each country or language version has its own canonical and its hreflang labels, as hreflang explained describes.

Then request indexing, and expect Google to take some weeks to reconsider. The related status where no page named an original is covered in duplicate without user-selected canonical.