Canonical error from Google

[RVForce]

Moz couldn't explain this properly and I don't understand how to fix it. Google emailed this morning saying "Alternate page with proper canonical tag." Moz also kinda complains about the main URL and the main URL/index.html being duplicate. Of course they are. The main URL doesn't work without the index.html page. What am I missing? How can I fix this to eliminate this duplicate problem which to me isn't a problem?

[krantiisa]

where is my post?

[krantiisa]

Duplicate Content Issue:
Having duplicate content on your website can be problematic for search engines like Google. It can lead to confusion about which page should be ranked and indexed, potentially affecting your site's search engine rankings.

Canonicalization:
Canonicalization is a method used to inform search engines about the preferred version of a page when multiple versions of the same content exist. It helps prevent duplicate content issues and consolidates the ranking signals for the same content.

Based on your description, it seems you have a situation where the main URL and the main URL/index.html are both accessible and show the same content. While you mentioned it's not an issue for you because the main URL doesn't work without the index.html page, it's still considered best practice to handle this properly for SEO reasons.

[Fabian001]

@RVForce (1) Your main URL variant should have a self referencing canonical. (2) Your index.html page variant should have a canonical tag pointing at the main URL variant.

On both pages, use:
e.g. <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/" />

[1stFlorida]

We have our mobile website as a subfolder. Is this the correct way to use canonical tags
main website <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/" />
mobile subfolder mobile <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/mobile" />

Our primary website https://www.example.com and our mobile website https://www.example.com/mobile is a subfolder.

Is this the correct way to use "canonical" tags

main website <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/" />

mobile subfolder mobile <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/mobile" />