Start with search evidence
Google canonical URL guidance recommends consolidating duplicate content signals around a preferred URL so search systems and external references understand the primary entry.
About pages, homepages, resource libraries, and topic pages should align extensionless URLs, canonicals, sitemaps, internal links, and redirects around one reader-friendly entry.
Visibility is not demand
The useful question is not whether the page appeared somewhere; it is whether the search term, page promise, and next action fit the same reader job.
Check the page path
- List preferred URLs for core pages, then check footer links, sitemap, hreflang, old links, and redirects
- Keep the test narrow: one priority page with clear topic, source links, internal links, and a conversion action
What still needs proof
Duplicate entries split external links, search visibility, and reader memory across multiple URLs. Keep the original source open so the announcement, the evidence, and this site's interpretation stay separate.