Canonical tags

Started by nancyisabell, 01-09-2015, 01:10:38

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nancyisabellTopic starter

What is Canonical tags please explain in clear words I am very confusing in this term...


alvinwright

The proclamation from Yahoo!, Live & Google that they will be supporting another "accepted url tag" to help website admins and webpage holders wipe out made toward oneself copy content in the list is, as I would see it, the greatest change to SEO best practices subsequent to the rise of Sitemaps. It's uncommon that we cover web index advertisements or "news things" here on Seomoz, as this site is dedicated a larger number of towards strategies than breaking features, yet this unquestionably requests consideration and obliges brisk training.

<link rel="canonical" href="http://xyz.com/blog" />
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pathannishat

Webmaster Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Including a rel=canonical link in your webpage is a strong hint to search engines your about preferred version to index among duplicate pages on the web. It's supported by several search engines, including Yahoo!, Bing, and Google. The rel=canonical link consolidates indexing properties from the duplicates, like their inbound links, as well as specifies which URL you'd like displayed in search results. However, rel=canonical can be a bit tricky because it's not very obvious when there's a misconfiguration.

Read more... http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.in/2013/04/5-common-mistakes-with-relcanonical.html

AvniShergill

Canonical Tag is used to tell Search Engine that the content of the page is copied content and not unique one. It's important to use canonical tag, so that the website don't get affected because of Google update.

James_brown1

Resolving canonical issue in the website i.e. redirecting multiple pages having same content to one single URL or redirecting our website from www to non www is called canonicalization. The use of canonical tags is to make search engines understand that the content belong to the same website and it is not duplicate content. This tag helps to resolve your duplicate content issue otherwise you may get penalized by Google.


WebOutGateway

Hi!

To be more clearer, Canonical Tag indicates the source URL or the 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 to reference its source. 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.




NancyFernandes

If two website or webpages are mirror of each other than Google will ban any of the webpage or domain. In order to avoid this situation, there is a Canonical Tag which helps to tell Google that one page is the copy(mirror) of another page.

For example:- If abc.com as well as abc.com/index.html are having the same content then we have to tell Google that /index.html is the copy page of abc.com. We can do this by giving the Canonical Tag to the /index.html.
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boysingh

#7
Canonical tags are HTML elements that are used to tell search engines which version of a webpage is the preferred or canonical version. They are used when there are multiple versions of the same content available through different URLs, and you want to specify which one should be considered as the authoritative version.

When search engines encounter multiple URLs with similar or identical content, they may consider them duplicate content, which can affect your website's ranking. To avoid this, you can add a canonical tag to indicate the preferred URL that search engines should index.

For example, if you have a webpage that can be accessed through both "www.example.com/page" and "www.example.com/page?source=abc", you may want to set the canonical tag on both URLs to point to "www.example.com/page" as the preferred version. This helps search engines understand that these variations are essentially the same page and should be treated as such.

By using canonical tags correctly, you can consolidate the ranking signals for duplicate or similar content, prevent issues with duplicate content penalties from search engines, and improve the overall SEO (Search Engine Optimization) performance of your website.

more information about canonical tags:

1. Implementation: To implement a canonical tag, you need to add a specific HTML element to the head section of your web page. The canonical tag looks like this:

   `<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/page" />`

   Replace "https://www.example.com/page" with the URL of the preferred version of your webpage.

2. Purpose: Canonical tags help search engines understand which version of a webpage to prioritize when there are multiple URLs with similar content. This is especially useful in cases where different versions of a page have slight variations due to parameters, sorting options, or session IDs.

3. Benefits: Using canonical tags correctly can help consolidate the ranking signals for duplicate or similar content. It also helps avoid penalties from search engines for having duplicate content. By indicating the preferred version of a webpage, you improve the chances of that page ranking higher in search engine results.

4. Proper Usage: It's important to use canonical tags consistently and accurately. Ensure that the canonical tag points to the correct URL and that all other versions of the page (such as HTTP and HTTPS, www and non-www) redirect to the preferred version.

5. Limitations: While canonical tags are powerful tools, they are not foolproof. Search engines may still crawl and index non-canonical versions of a page, particularly if they find them through external links. Canonical tags are also not a substitute for properly managing duplicate content issues, such as using 301 redirects or URL parameter handling.

few more points about canonical tags:

1. Cross-Domain Canonicals: Canonical tags can also be used across different domains. This means that if you have multiple websites that have similar or identical content, you can use canonical tags to specify the preferred version across these different domains.

2. Mobile and Desktop Versions: If your website has separate mobile and desktop versions, you can use canonical tags to indicate the preferred version. This helps search engines understand which version to prioritize in their rankings.

3. Dynamic Content: If your website generates dynamic content based on user preferences or actions, you can use canonical tags to indicate the base version of the page without any variations. This way, search engines will focus on indexing the base version while still allowing user-specific content to be displayed.

4. Multiple Canonical Tags: In some cases, you may need to use multiple canonical tags on a single webpage. This could happen if you have different sections or categories on a page that need to be considered as separate canonical versions.

5. Monitoring: It's advisable to monitor the implementation and effectiveness of canonical tags using tools like Google Search Console. This way, you can ensure that search engines are correctly recognizing and honoring your specified canonical URLs.

Remember, canonical tags are just one part of an overall SEO strategy. Other factors such as quality content, website structure, and backlinks also play important roles in optimizing your website for search engines.
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morganlong

If there is duplicate content on multiple URLs. Then you can use the canonical tag. So it will redirect to your main page. And Google will not penalize you.
Example of canonical tag: <link rel="canonical" href="http://example.com/blog" />


SaanviRao

Another option for dealing with duplicate content is to utilize the rel=canonical tag. The rel=canonical tag passes the same amount of link juice (ranking power) as a 301 redirect, and often takes much less development time to implement.