Duplicate Without User-selected Canonical Issue
Bob Coyne
Hi
Since building new Joomla 4 (now 5) websites which use SP Pagebuilder, I have found that Google Search Console shows all urls are no longer indexed due to 'Duplicate without user-selected canonical'.
Everything was fine with my Joomla 3 websites.
A quick search for answers online and a lot of people are saying that SP Pagebuilder and Helix is the issue.
I have seen some mention that the Aimy Canonical plugin fixes the issues. Can you tell me if this is true or if the issue has now been fixed in the latest versions of SP Pagebuilder and Helix.
Thank you.
Ofi Khan
Accepted AnswerThank you for the detailed follow-up — you’ve described the situation very well. You’re absolutely right that the change in Helix Ultimate’s meta handling in Joomla 4/5, combined with how SP Page Builder generates multiple URL variants, is the root of the issue.
Recommended solutions:
- Update to the latest Helix Ultimate and SP Page Builder versions (some improvements have been made here).
- Use a canonical extension such as Aimy Canonical — many site owners find it effective.
- In Joomla, check your Menus → Page Display → URL settings to ensure each SP Page Builder page has a clean, unique menu link. Avoid leaving “orphan” pages that can only be reached via raw
index.php?links. - If possible, enforce redirects from alternate URLs (like
/index.php/home) to the primary one.
After applying the above, re-submit your URLs in Google Search Console and you should see them re-indexed correctly over time.
Bob Coyne
Accepted AnswerI'd appreciate if someone could answer my question as this is an important issue.
Ofi Khan
Accepted AnswerHello Bob Coyne,
Thank you for reaching out to our technical support forum. I’m sorry to hear about the trouble you’re experiencing. Rest assured, I will look into this issue for you and work to resolve it as quickly as possible.
If you could kindly provide any additional information regarding the issue, it would greatly help me investigate and address it more efficiently. Please share your report and mention where the issue is presented. I will have a look.
Everything was fine with my Joomla 3 websites.
Is the Joomla 3 site built with SP Page Builder?
Best regards
Bob Coyne
Accepted AnswerThe Joomla 3 sites were not built using Helix or Pagebuilder. I believe this is the issue:
-
Helix Ultimate’s automatic meta handling changed in Joomla 4
Helix Ultimate for Joomla 4 doesn’t always insert a self-referencing canonical tag on every page, whereas Joomla 3’s output often did this by default.
In some configurations, Helix will:
Leave out the <link rel="canonical"> entirely Or add a canonical tag only for certain page types (blog views, articles) but not for SP Page Builder pages.This leaves Google free to decide its own canonical, which is exactly what GSC is telling you it’s doing.
-
SP Page Builder creates multiple URL variants
A single page can sometimes be accessed via:
companymatters4u.co.uk/ companymatters4u.co.uk/index.php/home Menu aliases with slightly different paths.Unless a canonical is set in Joomla’s Menus → Page Display → URL, these all have identical HTML output.
Joomla 3’s routing and some templates handled this more cleanly; Joomla 4 + SP Page Builder sometimes exposes the alternates without a redirect.
Bob Coyne
Accepted AnswerI have now applied Aimy Canonical to all of my websites and noticed that those using the older Helix 3 weren't affected. So I think Helix is the issue, not SP Pagebuilder.