Recently i observed that 39 URLs are excluded in the index coverage page on my site’s search console. When i checked them, few are shown with error ” Submitted URL not selected as canonical”. I followed below steps and figured out the root cause. There might be many reasons for this error, but im sharing it just to help you if you have similar case.
- Goto Search console (new)
- Click on “Open Report” of Index Coverage
- Click on “Excluded”
- Click on “Submitted URL not selected as canonical”. List of affected pages will be displayed.
- Select one affected page (URL). On right side, you will see “page details”
- Select “FETCH AS GOOGLE”. A new window opens to fetch the URL by google.
- Click on “FETCH”. You should see Status as Complete. Otherwise click on the status to see the error.
- If you see URL is redirecting to correct URL (same URL but with few upper or lowercase letters), then click FOLLOW . So, Google understands that redirected page is canonical.
- In my case, the page was redirected to another URL
Observed that there are two existing pages on my site. The page (excluded in search console) is getting redirected to another existing page on my site. So, Google thought it was a duplicate page of redirected URL and did’t index.
I went to my redirection tool and identified that there was a redirect from excluded URL to another URL (a mistake). I removed that redirect and fetched the URL again. This time, Google fetched it successfully with status as “Complete”.
Conclusion: Duplicate pages on your site results “Submitted URL not selected as canonical” error. You have to either select one of them as canonical or fix the wrong redirects.
