What does a canonical tag do?
A
canonical tag specifies the source URL (or original content page) of a given
page to a search engine such as Google. Canonical tags are used to declare
a single page as its own source or for duplicate pages to reference their
source / originating page. Search Engines use the canonical tag to combat
duplicate content issues and assign search engine ranking value
for that content to the page designated as the “source” URL.
Why do
canonical tags matter?
Duplicate
content is a big no-no to search engines. Having pages of identical or very
similar content on your website is seen as a negative, and may be used by
Google to devalue your website when determining rankings. If you use https on
your site, utilize a content management system like WordPress or Drupal, or run an eCommerce
website, the combination of different URLs people can use to access your
website opens you up to a major SEO vulnerability if not properly addressed.
By properly employing canonical tags to pages on your site, you can
avoid this pitfall and take full advantage of both a robust site and
streamlined Search Engine Optimization practices.
How do I apply
a canonical tag?
On the
pages that you want Google to recognize as canonical, add a link tag to the
head of the HTML code. For example, to designate www.om.com with the
canonical tag, the code would look like:
<link rel=”canonical”
href=”https://www.om.com” />
Set your preferred domain
Tell Google which version of your site's URL you
prefer for your domain:
·
https://www.example.com
·
https://example.com
If you set your preferred domain as https://example.com, Google treats links to https://www.example.com exactly the same as links to https://example.com.
Indicate the preferred URL with the rel="canonical" link element
Suppose you want https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ to be the preferred URL, even though a
variety of URLs can access this content. You can indicate this to search
engines as follows:
·
Mark up the canonical page and any other variants with a
rel="canonical" link element.
Add a <link> element with the attribute rel="canonical" to the <head> section of these pages:
Add a <link> element with the attribute rel="canonical" to the <head> section of these pages:
<link rel="canonical"
href="https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome"
/>
This indicates the preferred URL to use to
access the green dress post, so that the search results will be more
likely to show users that URL structure. (Note: We attempt to respect this, but cannot
guarantee this in all cases.)
Avoid errors:
use absolute paths rather than relative paths with the rel="canonical" link element.
Use this structure: https://www.example.com/dresses/green/greendresss.html
Not this structure: /dresses/green/greendress.html).
Use this structure: https://www.example.com/dresses/green/greendresss.html
Not this structure: /dresses/green/greendress.html).
Written by OM MAURYA SIR
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Great explanation of the canonical tag and its importance in SEO! This guide breaks down how to avoid duplicate content issues and boost your site's rankings. A must-read for SEO beginners!
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