Curious about what is a canonical tag? And how they are relevant to your website ranking.
Canonical URL helps Google to understand which URL is the principal version of URL when you have a duplicate page or similar content on the website.
Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo create canonical tags to solve the duplicate content issue on the website. It works, and Canonical tags solve duplication issues if we use them correctly. Let’s learn about canonical tags, URLs, how they work, and how to implement them on a website.
What is Canonical Tag?
In Simple words, a canonical tag is the HTML code defining the website URL’s main version. We use canonical tags to inform search engines which URL needs indexing if your website has duplicate or similar content with different URLs.
Canonical tags(aka rel “canonical”) syntax is simple as follows:
<link rel=“canonical” href=“www.domain/sample-page/” />
This code will be placed in the <head> section. Canonical link element content rel=” canonical” and href. The href =” URL” is the URL visible to search engines and users instead of the current one.
Canonicalization means the process of choosing a representative- canonical URL.
What is a Canonical URL?
A canonical URL defines the main copy of the page when you have duplicate or similar content on the website.
If we have more pages with duplicate content, we can set the main page as a canonical URL to inform search engines which page to index.
A canonical URL is the best version of the content when you have duplicate content on the website.
What is the importance of canonical Tags in SEO?
As we all know, Search engines do not like duplicate content. It is hard to decide for them which page needs to rank on the SERP for a relevant query.
Also, duplicate pages affect your crawl rate if you have the same content with different URLs. Unnecessary time will spend on crawling pages with the same content.
Canonical URLs solve these issues. They tell Search engines which primary page needs to index and rank in SERP. If you missed the use canonical tag, then Google will decide and might choose the page you want to ignore.
Using a canonical tag on the website is advisable if there is any chance of duplicate content.
How to implement canonical tags?
Google gives complete documentation on canonicalization signals. There are five ways to implement canonical tags.
- HTML tag (rel=canonical)
- HTTP header
- Sitemap
- 301 redirect
- Internal links
Canonical Tags Best Practices
Implementing canonical tags is tricky, but once you get an idea and simple best practices to follow, spotting and implementing canonical URLs make it easy. Improper redirection or canonical tagging can cause the canonical issue. This led to a negative impact on the website in SERP.
Some of the practices you should keep in mind are as follow :
Use One Canonical URL Per Page
We should use only one canonical URL for a page. Google will ignore all the URLs if we use more than one canonical tag on the page, which might lead to further duplication issues.
Use Correct Domain Protocol in canonical tag
Always keep in mind if your side has HTTP or HTTPS. Keep the correct domain in the rel=” canonical URL.”
Use Either Trailing Slash or Non-Trailing Slash URLs
This is the most important thing to pay attention to. Always check your website has trailing slash or non-trailing slash URLs because Google treats both URLs as two separate URLs. Be sure to use the canonical tag.
USE Exact URL in canonical tag
Always use the exact or absolute URL in the canonical tag. It means using a complete URL in the canonical tag syntax.
Canonical tag example <link rel=”canonical” href=”www.example.com/url/” />
Common canonicalization mistakes to avoid
Canonicalization is hard to implement, depending on the scenario. Here are some common mistakes we should avoid when implementing canonical URLs.
- robots.txt blocked the URL: Blocking URL by robots.txt disallow Google to crawl. It means Google will be unable to see that tag on the page. Search engines like Google and Yahoo can not crawl or index the URL in SERP.
- Setting non-index to canonical URL: Search engines like Google can not index the URL when we use the non-index rule with canonical URLs. So should not use non-index and canonical tags together.
- Setting 4XX status code: non-index and 4XX HTTP status code function is same. If we use the 4XX status code, Google cannot index the URL and transfer the link quality to the canonical URL.
- Canonical tag Syntax error: Canonical tag should be used in <head> section of the page. If we use a canonical tag in <body>, then it will be ignored by Google.
- Using Multiple canonical tags: Google ignores multiple canonical URLS present on the same page.
Canonical URLs Vrs 301 redirects
When we use 301 redirections, the user and crawler will directly go to the new URL. Also, it passes the link juice and link quality to a new page. When we use canonical tags the on the page, Google will know the primary page, but both the URLs will be visible to the user and Google.
So using a canonical tag or 301 redirects depends upon what results you want to see.
FAQs
A canonical URL is the main version of the webpage that search engines should consider authentic. Canonical URLs tell search engines which version of the page to crawl or index in the SERP when a page with similar content or duplicate content is available on the website.
A canonical tag tells search engines which version on a page is the canonical URL. It is added in the head section of a page and included URL is the main version of the page when you have similar content or duplicate content on the website.
A canonical URL should use when your website has similar or duplicate content. Canonical URL tells search engines which URL needs crawling when the website has multiple URLs for the same page content.
It is advisable to use a canonical URL if your website has duplicate or similar content available on the website. Canonical URL helps to prevent duplicate content issues and divert traffic to the main version of the page which you want to index. It also consolidates link quality, as all URLs will divert to the same URL.
We use Canonical URLs when your website has similar or duplicate content on the website. If you don’t use a canonical URL, search engines may have difficulty identifying which version of the page to crawl, index, or rank. Search engines might be able to crawl the page you want to ignore or do not want to index.
It is advisable to use only one canonical URL for a single page. Having multiple canonical URLs can confuse search engines. If the page has multiple canonical tags, Google will ignore both URLs, leading to further duplicate content issues.
Canonical URLs do not pass 100% link juice but pass most of the link juice to the main version of a page. Any link juice to duplicate versions of a page is transferred to the canonical version.
No, If you use a redirection, the page traffic will directly go to the preferred page version. So it is not necessary to use a canonical tag. But still, it’s a good practice to include canonical tags to provide information to search engines.