<b>SOP: One canonical URL per page, nothing else</b>

<b>SOP: One canonical URL per page, nothing else</b>

The sitemap must list the exact canonical form. Variants dilute the signal and inflate "Crawled - not indexed". Filter every URL through:

— ✅ Matches the page's own <code>rel=canonical</code> exactly (protocol, host, trailing slash, casing)
— ✅ No URL parameters unless they change content (drop <code>?utm_</code>, <code>?ref=</code>, <code>?sessionid=</code>)
— ✅ No fragment identifiers (<code>#section</code>)
— ✅ Consistent trailing-slash policy — pick one, apply to all
— ✅ https only, never http

Fail signal: GSC shows "Duplicate, Google chose different canonical" for sitemap URLs — that means your sitemap lists the non-canonical variant.

Definition of done: for 10 sampled URLs, the sitemap <code>&lt;loc&gt;</code> byte-for-byte equals the page's canonical tag.