A canonical URL is the primary version of a web page that you want search engines to index and show in the search results.
Think of it as the main URL you want to be linked to a specific page when there are multiple versions or URLs. You’re basically telling search engines like Google which version is the primary one.
Why are there multiple URL versions for web pages?
Most pages have 4+ different versions of a URL.
For example:
These are all the same page but have different URLs. It’s not uncommon for search engines to get confused about which version of the page to rank.
Canonicalization helps consolidate these variations into a single, authoritative version.
The canonical URL simply specifies which version should be considered the “master” so Google knows which page to display in the search engine results pages.
What Will I Learn?
A canonical tag is an HTML element that specifies a web page’s canonical URL. The canonical tag tells Google what the canonical URL is so they know which page version to index.
A canonical tag looks like this:
<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.yoursite.com/example-page” />
It’s actually pretty simple:
The canonical tag is placed in the <head> section of your HTML code.
You simply need to change the href= to the URL you want search engines to index and display in the organic search results.
The next time Googlebot crawls your page, it will see the canonical tag and update the Google index.
Canonical URLs are important for SEO because they help Google evaluate the quality of your content.
It allows you to indicate to Google which is the master version of a page so they know which page to evaluate and index.
These are the three big reasons why canonical URLs are essential:
Canonical URLs solve 90% of duplicate content issues most website owners face.
When you have multiple URLs with the same (or very similar) content, Google can view them as duplicate content.
Everyone knows that this is a big no-no for SEO.
Duplicate content will lead to ranking issues and in the worst cases, Google penalties.
The Good news is that canonical URLs solve this issue by telling Google which URLs to prioritise and which to ignore.
This method even works at scale across multiple domains.
Backlinks are an important Google ranking factor.
When similar content exists on multiple URLs, backlinks to each of these pages are spread out. This dilutes the value of each link.
But a canonical URL consolidates all the link equity into the one master version of the page, boosting the overall link equity and ranking potential.
It costs money for Google to crawl the web.
That means that Google is constantly looking for more efficient ways to crawl websites and lower costs.
Google gives a crawl budget for each individual site.
When that crawl budget is exhausted, they stop crawling your site. That means that sometimes important pages might not get crawled and indexed.
Not good for SEO, right?
Canonical URLs can help solve this problem. You show search engines your preferred page version so they can ignore the rest.
This improves crawl efficiency and reduces the cost of crawling your site.
The easier (and cheaper) you make it for Google, the more likely they are to prioritise your site for rankings.
To check a canonical URL, right click on the page and select “View Page Source”.
Press Ctrl + F (Cmd + F on Mac) and search for “canonical”
Now look for the <link rel= “canonical” href= “URL”> tag. The URL after the href= is the canonical URL.
The easiest way to change your canonical URL in WordPress is by using the RankMath plugin.
Install the RankMath SEO plugin, click on the page/post you want to edit and scroll down to the RankMath SEO section.
Now, click on the “Advanced” tab and add your primary URL version in the “Canonical URL” field.
Save the page/post and the canonical URL will be added to the page.
Easy, right?
Follow these 5 best practices for canonical URLs:
All your URLs should have the same:
Decide on the protocol and domain version before you start specifying canonical URLs.
Consistency helps search engines understand your preferred URL structure and avoids any confusion.
If you forget to add canioncial tag to a URL, Google will use the consistency of your website URL structure for indexing pages.
Think of it like teaching search engines what you want!
Always use full URLs instead of relative URLs.
Full URLs include the entire domain – https://www.example.com/page.
Relative URLs just include the page permalink – /page).
Search engines find it easier to understand the canonical URL when you use the entire domain. It ensures clarity about canonicalization and avoids any confusion that could impact your search rankings.
SEO best practices dictate that you should add a canonical tag on every page, even if it points to itself.
While that might sound silly, Google recommends doing it.
The bottom line is that self-referential canonical tags make it very clear to Google which is the preferred URL type and which page you want indexed.
Make sure you avoid creating chains of canonical URLs.
For example, Page A canonicalizes to Page B, which then canonicalizes to Page C. This chain is likely to confuse search engines.
The canonical tag should only point directly to the final preferred URL.
If you make changes to page content or URL structures, add 301 redirects and update the canonical tags.
This will ensure that users and search engines are directed to the correct, most up-to-date page. It also helps clarify the master version of the page.
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