How-to steps · Chapter 6, S for Structure
Check canonicals and schema on your priority pages
You are here for this line in chapter 6 of the book:
☐ Compare declared and Google-selected canonicals in Search Console URL Inspection; fix differences, then test schema with Google's Rich Results Test.
Chapter 6, S for Structure
Check which canonical Google chose
- Paste the page's URL into the URL Inspection bar at the top of Search Console.
- Open Page indexing. Compare User-declared canonical (what your page says) with Google-selected canonical (what Google decided).
- If they differ, Google disagrees with your page about which version is the real one. Fix the duplicates, internal links or redirects that are confusing it, then request indexing.
Google's choice shows in the indexed result, not in the live test.
Test it before you publish
- Rich Results Test: paste a URL or code to see which Google features it qualifies for and any errors.
- Schema Markup Validator: checks any schema.org markup, including types Google does not show as rich results. Hawk Academy's free Schema Validator does both jobs in one place and lists missing required and recommended properties.
- Then read the page: every value in the schema (price, hours, name, address) must match what a visitor sees. Schema that disagrees with the page is worse than none.
FAQ markup: Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in May 2026. Keep useful questions and answers visible on the page; the markup no longer earns a result.
You're done when you have for each priority page, Google's chosen canonical matches yours and the schema passes both tests.