Only use canonical tag when page is set to index

1

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for a solution that shows the canonical meta tag only when a page is set to ‘index’ in the meta tag robots.

Just to clarify things: I use ‘robots’ = ‘index’ or ‘noindex’ on every page as a meta tag to instruct search engines. However since it’s SEO best practice, I only want to show the canonical meta tag when a ‘robots’ meta tag is available on the page AND contains the value ‘index’.

Can anyone help me? Any help is much appreciated.

Currently I’m using:

 <link rel="canonical" href="{{ page.header.routes.canonical ? page.routeCanonical : page.url(true, true ) }}" />

to generate the canonical tag.

Best,
Thorsten

2

@Thorst3n, Please format your post correctly. Code snippets are not shown without proper use of backticks or triple backticks.

Also please explain what you are trying to achieve.

3

Hi pamtbaau,

Many thanks for your feedback. I didn’t check my post, as I was in a rush. Sorry for that!!!

I worked on the initial post again to clarify my problem and make it easier to understand. I hope this helps.

Best

4

Hi

I use ‘robots’ = ‘index’ or ‘noindex’

you did not specify how you doing this (I will use select field in blueprint with 4 options index, follow / index, nofollow / noindex, follow / noindex, nofollow ) and set something like:

{% if header.index == indexfollow %}<link rel="canonical" href="{{ page.url(true) }}">{% endif %}

hope this will help

5

my mistake - you said that U use meta tag… but U should easily fit my code with your settings

6

Hi domena.online,

Many thanks for your help. This makes total sense. But since I’m new to Grav (which seems to be the reason…) I can’t get a blueprint to work… It drives me nuts. I use the template resume:
https://github.com/getgrav/grav-theme-resume

On top of that I have a multi language page, so my user/pages folder looks like this:

  • left (folder)
    resume.de.md
    resume.en.md
    personal statement (folder)
    default.de.md
    default.en.md
    languages (folder)
    languages.de.md
    languages.en.md

  • right
    default.de.md
    default.en.md
    experience (folder)
    default.de.md
    default.en.md
    recognitions (folder)
    default.de.md
    default.en.md

  • root.de.md

  • root.en.md

In the users/themes/resume/blueprints folder I have a resume.de.yaml file but it won’t change anything in the backend (at least I can’t find any changes). I even copied the first example code from here, just to make sure that it would work:
https://learn.getgrav.org/17/forms/blueprints/example-page-blueprint

PS: I also created a left folder in the blueprints folder and added a resume.de.yaml file in there but that wouldn’t change anything either.
PS 2: The left folder is the homepage if you will.

Do you think you could help me here once more?

Best,
Thorsten

7

ah and one more thing. How do I check what value “header.index” currently has?

8

@Thorst3n,

I have a resume.de.yaml file but it won’t change anything […]

Don’t use language extensions like *.de.yaml to blueprints.
The field’s label and help properties will automatically be translated when using a proper language.yaml file.

I use ‘robots’ = ‘index’ or ‘noindex’ on every page as a meta tag

Do you mean the following inside the header (aka. frontmatter) of the page?

metadata:
  robots: index

If so, I also presume you are using field ‘Metadata’ in Admin on tab ‘Options’. In that case, there is no need for a blueprint.

Considering my presumptions the following should work:

  • Create a child theme based on Resume
  • Override Resume’s template templates/partials/base.html.twig by following the instructions in Extend base template of inherited theme.
    Replace the onTwigLoader function with:
    public function onTwigLoader() {
  $resume_path = Grav::instance()['locator']->findResource('themes://resume');
  $this->grav['twig']->addPath($resume_path . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'templates', 'resume');
}
  • Add the following inside themes/myresume/templates/partials/base.html.twig
    {% extends '@resume/partials/base.html.twig' %}

{% block head %}   
  {{ parent() }}

  {% if page.header.metadata.robots == 'index' %}
      <link rel="canonical" href="{{ page.header.routes.canonical ? page.routeCanonical : page.url(true, true ) }}" />
  {% endif %}
{% endblock %}
9

Hi guys,

Sorry for answering so late, I wasn’t working on my page for the last couple of days. However, I got it finaly fixed.

I had to use:

{% if site.metadata.robots == 'index' and page.header.metadata.robots != 'noindex' %}
  <link rel="canonical" href="{{ page.url(true) }}" />
  {% include 'partials/langswitcher.hreflang.html.twig' %}
{% endif %}

This is, because I was always looking for a “general” solution for my website.

The main issue was that I’m new to Grav and twig and had to think every through. But your solutions really helped. :slight_smile:

Many thanks!

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