fix(scoring): canonical-present skips noindex pages

.changeset/canonical-present-noindex.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@advance-labs/scoring": patch
+---
+
+`tech.canonical-present` no longer asks `noindex` pages for a canonical (its own text says "every indexable page"). `tech.canonical-resolves` and `tech.indexable` still see noindex pages. Found auditing aeo.advancelabs.dev, where `/login` (noindex, nofollow) failed the rule.

packages/scoring/src/noindex.test.ts

@@ -115,8 +115,16 @@ describe('indexability rules still see noindex pages', () => {
     expect(f?.passed).toBe(false);
   });
 
-  it('canonical-present keeps inspecting noindex pages', async () => {
+  it('canonical-present does not ask a noindex page for a canonical', async () => {
     const f = (await findings(withLogin())).get('tech.canonical-present');
+    expect(f?.affectedUrls ?? []).not.toContain(LOGIN);
+  });
+
+  it('canonical-resolves still inspects noindex pages (a malformed canonical is flagged)', async () => {
+    const ctx = withLogin();
+    ctx.pages = ctx.pages.map((p) => (p.url === LOGIN ? { ...p, meta: { ...p.meta, canonical: 'not a url' } } : p));
+    const f = (await findings(ctx)).get('tech.canonical-resolves');
+    expect(f?.passed).toBe(false);
     expect(f?.affectedUrls).toContain(LOGIN);
   });
 });

packages/scoring/src/technical-seo-rules.ts

@@ -304,9 +304,9 @@ export const technicalSeoRules: Rule[] = [
     title: 'Canonical URL is declared',
     description: 'A canonical tag consolidates duplicate URLs to one preferred address.',
     recommendation: 'Add <link rel="canonical"> to every indexable page.',
-    // Canonical checks keep seeing noindex pages: a canonical on a page you meant to index is
-    // exactly what they verify, and pages are only excluded from scoring, not from inspection.
-    includesNoindexPages: true,
+    // Scored without noindex pages: its own recommendation says "every indexable page", and a page
+    // that opted out of search has no use for a canonical. (An accidental noindex is caught by
+    // tech.indexable, which does see those pages.) canonical-resolves below still sees them.
     evaluate: (ctx) => {
       const missing = pagesFailing(ctx, (p) => Boolean(p.meta.canonical));
       return missing.length === 0 ? { passed: true } : { passed: false, affectedUrls: missing };