{
  "kind": "answer",
  "studySlug": "anatomy-of-an-ai-citation",
  "slug": "are-canonical-and-open-graph-tags-common-on-cited-pages",
  "title": "Are canonical and Open Graph tags common on cited pages?",
  "description": "Yes. 91.4% of cited pages in the study have canonical tags and 89.2% include Open Graph tags.",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-03-30",
  "lastTested": "2026-03-30",
  "sourceStudyUrl": "/trakkr-research/anatomy-of-an-ai-citation",
  "sourceStudyTitle": "The Anatomy of an AI Citation",
  "claimIds": [
    "anatomy-of-an-ai-citation:canonical-rate",
    "anatomy-of-an-ai-citation:og-rate"
  ],
  "relatedSlugs": [
    "answer:is-schema-enough-on-its-own-to-earn-ai-citations",
    "answer:what-does-the-benchmark-say-about-page-design-for-ai-citations",
    "fact:canonical-tags-appear-on-over-ninety-percent-of-cited-pages",
    "tracker:cited-page-traits-tracker"
  ],
  "methodologySummary": "Built from 1,465 AI-cited pages across 950 domains, using 28,033 citation opportunities and page-level crawl analysis.",
  "limitations": [
    "Most findings are correlational. Overrepresented traits are not the same as proven causal lifts.",
    "Some subgroups, especially FAQ Schema + FAQ Content, are relatively small and should be read carefully.",
    "The study looks at cited pages rather than all uncited pages in the open web, so it is best used as a benchmark profile."
  ],
  "keywords": [
    "AI cited pages",
    "schema markup AI",
    "FAQ schema",
    "citability",
    "canonical tags AI citations",
    "OG tags AI"
  ],
  "schemaHints": {
    "pageType": "Article",
    "includeDataset": true
  },
  "question": "Are canonical and Open Graph tags common on cited pages?",
  "directAnswer": "Yes. 91.4% of cited pages in the study have canonical tags and 89.2% include Open Graph tags.",
  "answerSummary": "Basic metadata hygiene is part of the default profile of a citeable page, indicating that proper technical foundations correlate with AI visibility.",
  "keyFacts": [
    {
      "label": "Canonical tag rate",
      "value": "91.4%",
      "detail": "Share of cited pages with a canonical tag.",
      "claimId": "anatomy-of-an-ai-citation:canonical-rate"
    },
    {
      "label": "OG tag rate",
      "value": "89.2%",
      "detail": "Share of cited pages with Open Graph tags.",
      "claimId": "anatomy-of-an-ai-citation:og-rate"
    }
  ],
  "evidenceTable": [
    {
      "label": "Canonical tag rate",
      "value": "91.4%",
      "note": "Share of cited pages with a canonical tag."
    },
    {
      "label": "OG tag rate",
      "value": "89.2%",
      "note": "Share of cited pages with Open Graph tags."
    }
  ],
  "whyItMatters": "Operators must ensure standard metadata is present to remove technical friction for AI crawlers, making proper tagging a baseline requirement for content publication workflows.",
  "whatToDo": [
    "Make answer pages denser, more structured, and more explicit about authorship and freshness.",
    "Use schema where it helps machine readability, but avoid treating markup as a substitute for strong content.",
    "Design pages to be extractable with concise answers, tables, lists, authors, and clearly marked evidence."
  ],
  "faqs": [
    {
      "question": "What percentage of cited pages use canonical tags?",
      "answer": "The study found that 91.4% of cited pages include a canonical tag."
    },
    {
      "question": "How common are Open Graph tags on pages cited by AI?",
      "answer": "Open Graph tags are present on 89.2% of cited pages."
    }
  ]
}