How to inspect a page's canonical and robots metadata
Canonical and robots metadata express how a page presents its preferred URL and indexing instructions. Recording the actual values helps investigate inconsistencies without guessing from the visible headline.
Start with the right material.
- What you provide
- the current document head inspected through approved page code.
- The intended result
- Save declared canonical and meta robots values, separating page tags from unknown HTTP headers.
How the workflow works.
Extract readable canonical links and robots directives from the supplied page or markup. Preserve multiple or conflicting values separately so the review shows exactly what was found.
What to check in the result.
Verify findings against the delivered page and relevant response headers when needed. These values alone do not confirm whether a search engine has crawled, indexed or selected the page as canonical.
Parse the JSON before using it in another application, then inspect its actual values. Valid syntax confirms that a parser can read the structure; it does not confirm that the extracted facts are correct.
Learn from the worked example.
The downloadable example is a JSON array. Compare its structure and missing-value handling with the result you need, then check your own values against the supplied source.
The supplied example is illustrative. It is not a recorded run on your data.
Download the example ↓Use it with your own material.
- Open the source you want to work with and activate WebAct on that tab.
- Copy the task from the hero, add any required fields or preferences, and review the proposed actions.
- Compare the first result with your source. Ask for a specific correction or refinement where needed.