rel=canonical
A <link rel="canonical" href="…"> tag in HTML hints which URL should be treated as the preferred version of a page when duplicates or near-duplicates exist.
What ChainTrace does
On responses with an HTML content type, ChainTrace peeks at a size-capped prefix of the body and extracts the first canonical link tag. Tags injected only by client-side JavaScript after load are not seen.
Reading the finding
- Matches final URL — canonical agrees with where the redirect chain landed.
- Points elsewhere — often intentional (parameterized URLs, print views); confirm it matches your SEO plan.
- Unknown / missing — absent tag, non-HTML final response, or beyond the peek window.