ConvertSite
Website builder

Set canonical URLs for a site

Tell search engines which address to use for your published site with the Canonical URLs setting in Share settings. Use it when another platform shows your ConvertSite site at a different address, such as a blog that lives at example.com/blog. The setting updates the metadata on your published pages as soon as you save it, without republishing.

Open Share settings

The Canonical URLs card is part of a site's Share settings.

  1. Open the site's Settings.

  2. Click Share settings in the sidebar.

The site Settings page with the Share settings link highlighted in the sidebar

These settings use the same site access permission as the rest of the site's settings.

Enable canonical URLs

Canonical URLs are off by default. Turning them on requires a public domain; the homepage path is optional.

  1. In the Canonical URLs card, turn on the switch.

  2. In Public domain, enter the domain visitors use to view your site, such as example.com. Leave out any path, query, or port.

  3. In Homepage path, enter the homepage's path on the public domain. Use / for a homepage at the domain root, or /blog for a homepage at example.com/blog.

  4. Click Update.

The Canonical URLs card with the switch on, showing the Public domain and Homepage path fields

The Canonical URLs card with the Update button highlighted

The homepage path applies only to the homepage. Pages other than the homepage keep their existing paths, and locale prefixes stay unchanged.

Invalid entries are rejected per field. The public domain shows: Enter a domain such as example.com, without a path, query, or port. The homepage path shows: Enter a path such as /blog or /. Use letters, numbers, hyphens, or underscores in each path segment.

The Canonical URLs card showing the saved public domain and homepage path with Cancel and Update disabled

Save, discard, or turn off canonical URLs

Nothing is saved until you click Update, and Cancel restores the saved configuration. Update and Cancel stay disabled until your draft differs from the saved settings.

Turning the switch off is different: it saves immediately, without clicking Update. Your saved public domain and homepage path are kept, so the fields show them again when you turn the setting back on.

What the setting changes

When canonical URLs are enabled, published pages use your public domain in their canonical links, alternate-language links (including the x-default entry), and Open Graph metadata. Sitemap URLs use the public domain as well. The homepage path changes only the homepage address in this metadata; other pages keep their paths.

The change applies to already published pages right away. You don't need to republish, and the site doesn't show as having unpublished changes afterwards.

Canonical URLs and custom domains

The Public domain setting only changes the addresses in your site's metadata. It doesn't make your site load at that domain. The Configure domain button in Share settings starts that separate setup. To serve your ConvertSite site at your own address, connect and verify a custom domain in Workspace Settings > Domain. See Connect a custom domain.

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