What does this kind of rel="canonical" mean?

[voicesdotcom]

It looks like our CMS may not be configured correctly as there is an empty section in the rel="canonical"

rel="canonical" href="{page_uri}" />

Will having the above meta tag be harmful to our SEO?

[voicesdotcom]

Would it be better if I used rel="canonical" href="http://www.voices.com" /> ?

[AlanBleiweiss]

In an ideal situation, the method where you just code the variable into the canonical tag string can work, however it can also lead to problems if the coding framework is not properly planned out or if an upgrade to the system has a bug in it.  I've seen situations where page_uri doesn't function after a system upgrade.

Best practices dictate that you need to ensure the full non-appended absolute URI show up at the source level on a live page so testing is critical if you're going with that option, and be aware of potential unanticipated breakdowns. It's all about what is seen on a view-source or seen the way Googlebot sees it.