Everything About Canonical URL And Why SEO Needs it!
Google the word ‘canonical’, and you’ll find these many definitions of the word. ⬇
Now, let’s focus on the definition marked in red and chuck out the rest.
As you can see, canonical, the word means - “accepted as being accurate and authoritative”. And when you approach the term “canonical URL”, it means the same, except this time for websites.
What canonical URL does is give Google the signal - “I’m the OG, crawl me”.
The What And Why of A Canonical URL (rel=”canonical”)
A canonical URL (shown in the URL as rel=”canonical”) tells Google which URL is the original (OG) of a webpage and should rank on search results. It is a way of telling search engines which version of a web page you want to be considered the "main" or "official" one.
Think of it like having a book with multiple copies, and you want to make sure people only read one particular copy. You would put a special note on that one copy, saying that it's the one you want people to read. That's what a canonical URL does, but for websites instead of books.
It helps to avoid confusion for search engines and make sure that your website's content is correctly indexed and shown in search results.
Now, if you have a website with multiple similar-looking pages, you may have noticed that search engines sometimes display different URLs of your website in their search results.
For example, there’s a huge possibility that different URL versions of Kraftshala’s website can rank on Google in this way:
As confusing as it looks to you, even search engines find this confusing, not knowing which URL they should actually help rank on search results. This happens because search engines are not sure which URL to show, so they display different URLs to help you choose the page you think should be featured in the results.
And using a canonical URL tells search engines which URL version of your content should be shown and which pages should be ignored. You can also use canonical URLs to tell search engines which link to use if a URL has been shared on multiple platforms.
For example, because we didn’t want to take a risk. So to give Google the right signal for our newly published blog on social media marketing , we have used a canonical tag (rel=”canonical”) to let Google know who is the OG. The canonical tag is always used in the head of the URL (right at the start of a URL). Here’s what it looks like:
How Does Canonical URL Benefit SEO?
The canonical URL is an important element of any search engine optimization strategy. You should use a canonical URL for any pages that are duplicating content across your website. This can be useful for pages that have been created as part of a content strategy, such as landing pages for specific product reviews or those that are part of a larger guide, but it can also be used for pages that are slightly different.
Let’s take an example.
Say you have a product page for sunglasses, and that page has two variations — the black version and the silver version of the same product. Now, you should use a canonical URL to tell search engines that the silver version of the page is the most important. This allows you to avoid duplicate content issues, but it also allows you to rank the most important page for a given search term. Setting up canonical URLs has a number of SEO benefits.
Canonical URLs help prevent duplicate content issues, which can have a negative impact on your SEO. When a page is duplicated across your website, it can be challenging for search engines to know which page to show in the search engine results.
Using a canonical URL lets you tell search engines which version of the page to show. This can help you to avoid a penalty from Google and it can also help you to rank the most important page for a given search term.
Using canonical URLs can also help you to avoid internal linking issues. If you link to a page that has a duplicate version across your website, you can also run into linking issues. Using canonical URLs can help you to avoid these issues.
How Do You Set a Canonical URL?
When you want to let search engines know that a page is a duplicate of another, you can use the trusty tag in the head section of your HTML code. And if you'd like for https://example.com/dresses/green-dresses to be recognized as the "official" URL, follow these steps:
Label all duplicate pages with a "rel='canonical'" link tag. This can be done by adding a element with the attribute "rel='canonical'" to the head section of the duplicate pages, pointing to the desired canonical URL.
If the canonical page has a mobile version, don't forget to add a "rel='alternate'" link, indicating the mobile version's URL. This can be done by adding a line like this:
Conclusion
The canonical URL, when used appropriately, can be a helpful tool for your SEO strategy. It can help you to avoid duplicate content issues and it can also help you to rank the most important page on your website for a given search term. Using a canonical URL is also a simple way to help you navigate your website, particularly if you have a lot of content and want to make it easier to navigate.
