Estimated reading time: 12 minutes
Everything You Need to Know About Rel=Canonical!
The Canonical tag is an HTML tag used to declare the original version of a web page to search engines and other websites.
This tag is used as a unique identifier for web pages and tells search engines that this page is the official and primary version, and all other versions that may be available should point to this version.
The Canonical tag is important because if multiple versions of a page are available, search engines may not be able to determine which version should be displayed in search results.
By using the Canonical tag, you can tell search engines which version is the original and should be displayed in search results.
Additionally, using the Canonical tag can help reduce duplicate content issues, which can lead to penalties or a decrease in page rankings in search engines.
The rel=canonical tag helps your website prevent duplicate content across different pages.
By using this tag, you can inform search engines which page should be considered as the original version. In short, the rel=canonical tag is the best way to manage different versions of website pages.
“Using the rel=canonical tag can help improve your website’s SEO ranking, but you must make sure to use it correctly.
To use this tag optimally, make sure that the different versions of your pages are properly tagged and never designate a version of your page as the original version if it has duplicate content.
-Jim Boykin
What is a Canonical URL?
A Canonical URL, also known as the original URL, is the official and primary address of a website page used to prevent content duplication and ambiguity in search engines.
If there are multiple URLs for a web page, search engines may have difficulty deciding which one to display in search results.
This problem can lead to a decrease in page ranking in search engines.
To prevent this issue, Canonical URL informs search engines which URL to choose for displaying in search results and is considered as the official and primary address of the desired page.
For example, if there are different versions of a web page with different URLs such as:
example.com/page
example.com/page?source=facebook
example.com/page?source=twitter
http://www.example.com
https://www.example.com
http://example.com
http://example.com/index.php
http://example.com/index.php?refer=twitter
Using Canonical URL, search engines can be informed that the address example.com/page should be considered as the primary URL for this page.
Why is using canonical tags important?
Using canonical tags is very important because:
Preventing duplicate content: If there are multiple versions of a URL for a web page, it can lead to duplicate content and as a result, reduce the page’s rank in search engines.
By using canonical tags, search engines can be informed of which version should be considered as the main and official URL and prevent duplicate content.
Improving search engine ranking: By using canonical tags, search engines can be informed of which version should be considered as the main and official URL, and as a result, improve the ranking of the pages in search results.
Creating proper connections between web pages: Using canonical tags can help create proper connections between web pages and cause search engines to consider different versions of a page as a similar page.
Increasing user satisfaction: Using canonical tags can increase user satisfaction as users may feel confused and disoriented when entering different pages with different URLs.
Simplifying website management: Using canonical tags can help website managers improve their website management.
Increasing site reliability: By using canonical tags, search engines can better understand which version of a page should be considered as the main content, and this increases site reliability and user trust.
Preventing SEO errors: Duplicate content is one of the mistakes that we may make in SEO, and using canonical tags can prevent these errors and prevent abuse of SEO.
In general, using canonical tags is essential for optimizing a site, and it helps improve page rankings in search results, prevent duplicate content, and create proper connections between web pages.
The rel=canonical tag is one of the best methods for managing different versions of web pages. If you have pages with similar content, using this tag can help improve your website’s SEO ranking. However, it’s important to use this tag correctly and make sure the original version of your pages is properly specified.
– Neil Patel
Setting a Canonical URL in WordPress
You can use the Yoast SEO or Rankmath plugin to set a canonical URL in WordPress. These plugins are among the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress and allow you to set the canonical tag.
Alternatively, if you are using a WordPress theme that provides access to header code, you can manually set the canonical tag for your website pages by editing the header.php file.
To do this, insert the following code into the head section of your WordPress theme’s header.php file:
In this code, replace “https://example.com/your-page/” with the canonical URL of your desired page.
Setting Canonical Tag with Yoast
To set a canonical tag with Yoast SEO in WordPress, you can follow these steps:
1- Install and activate Yoast SEO: First, you need to install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin from the plugins menu in WordPress.
2- Edit the desired page: After activating Yoast SEO, you need to edit the desired page or post to set the canonical tag.
3- Open Yoast SEO settings: In the page editor, go to the Yoast SEO settings section.
4- Choose “Advanced”: In the Yoast SEO settings section, choose “Advanced.”
5- Set the canonical tag: In the Advanced section, find the “Canonical URL” option.
Then click “Yes” to activate the canonical tag and enter your canonical URL in the appropriate field.
6- Save the changes: Finally, save the changes to set the canonical tag for your desired page or post.
If you want to set the canonical tag for WordPress categories or tags, you can go to the “Search Appearance” section in Yoast SEO settings and enable the canonical tag in the “Taxonomies” section, then enter your desired canonical URL.
Setting Canonical Tag with Rankmath
To set up the canonical tag with Rankmath in WordPress, you can follow the steps below:
1- Install and activate Rankmath: First, you need to install and activate the Rankmath plugin from the plugins menu in WordPress.
2- Edit the desired page: After activating Rankmath, to set up the canonical tag, you need to edit the page or post you want to optimize.
3- Open Rankmath settings: In the page editor, go to the Rankmath settings section.
4- Select “Advanced”: In the Rankmath settings section, select the “Advanced” option.
5- Set the canonical tag: In the Advanced section, find the “Canonical URL” option. Then click on “Enabled” to activate the canonical tag and enter your canonical URL in the corresponding field.
6- Save changes: Finally, save the changes to set up the canonical tag for your desired page or post.
If you want to set up the canonical tag for WordPress categories or tags, you can go to the “Titles & Meta” section in Rankmath settings and enable the canonical tag in the “Taxonomies” section, and enter your desired canonical URL.
Using the rel=canonical tag to improve your website’s SEO is very useful. However, you must use this tag correctly and make sure that the original version of your pages is properly identified. If you use this tag correctly, you can improve your website’s SEO ranking.
– Rand Fishkin.
Google Search Console Warnings Due to Duplicate Pages
These messages are displayed in Google Search Console reports and are shown due to the presence of duplicate pages on your website.
The meanings of each of these messages are as follows:
Alternate page with proper canonical tag: This means that there is another page on your site with similar content that refers to the main page using a canonical tag.
Duplicate without user-selected canonical: This means that there are duplicate pages on your site without the use of a user-selected canonical tag to refer to the main page.
Duplicate, submitted URL not selected as canonical: This means that there are duplicate pages with the use of a canonical tag, but the page that has been canonicalized is a different page than the submitted URL that was not selected as canonical.
Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user: This means that there are duplicate pages with a canonical tag, but Google has chosen a different page as canonical than the user-selected canonical.
HTML and AMP pages with similar content are not considered duplicate.
However, to prevent Google from recognizing them as separate pages and penalizing you with a split rank, it is better to use a canonical tag to tell Google which one of these pages should be recognized as your main page.
By doing so, you can solve the content division problem and prevent a drop in search result rankings.
What is the difference between a canonical tag and a 301 redirect?
Canonical tags and 301 redirects are both used to prevent duplicate content on a website, but they use different methods to achieve this.
A canonical tag tells Google that another page exists that has similar content to the current page and should be recognized as the primary page.
However, the canonical tag does not change the URL, and the user remains on the same current URL.
On the other hand, a 301 redirect changes the URL and redirects the user from the second page to the first page. So, if you have two pages on your site, for example, “example.com/page-1” and “example.com/page-2,” and you decide that page 2 should be recognized as the primary page, a 301 redirect should be applied from page 1 to page 2.
Additionally, when you 301 redirect page X to page Y, the authority of page X is transferred to page Y. This does not happen with a canonical tag.
Therefore, the main difference between a canonical tag and a 301 redirect is that the canonical tag only tells Google which page should be recognized as the primary page, while the 301 redirect moves the old URL to the new URL.
Can a canonical tag be self-referential?
Yes, a canonical tag can be self-referential if used correctly. In fact, using a self-referential canonical tag can be useful in some cases, such as when you have multiple versions of a page with similar content available at different URLs.
By using a self-referential canonical tag, you can tell Google that the current page should be recognized as the primary and acceptable page.
This is especially useful for pages that have been optimized with new Schema.org search engine optimization guidelines or if you are using multiple content modules for each page.
Therefore, using a self-referential canonical tag can be an effective way to avoid duplicate content issues and to help search engines understand which page should be ranked in search results.
Use Canonical tag on your website’s homepage
Using a Canonical tag for your website’s homepage is usually not necessary as the homepage is often recognized as the original and primary version of your website’s content.
However, if your website has multiple versions of the homepage with different addresses (e.g. with and without www), using a Canonical tag to refer to the original version of your website and prevent duplicate content can be useful.
In general, when there are multiple pages with similar or identical content on your website, using a Canonical tag to refer to the homepage and prevent repetitive content can be helpful.
However, for your website’s homepage, using this tag is usually not necessary.
Is a 301 redirect better than a Canonical tag for the homepage?
Using a 301 redirect instead of a Canonical tag to refer to the original version of your website’s homepage may be appropriate in some cases, but in other cases, it is better to use a Canonical tag.
If your website has multiple versions of the homepage with different addresses (e.g. with and without www), using a 301 redirect to the original version can be suitable because it quickly directs search engines to the original version of your website.
However, this can indirectly lead to a decrease in the speed of loading your website because every time users access one of the other versions of your website, time will be spent redirecting to the original version with a 301 redirect.
On the other hand, using a Canonical tag to refer to the original version of your website can have an effective improvement on your website’s SEO as it informs search engines which version of your website’s pages should be sent to users for display.
Therefore, using a 301 redirect instead of the Canonical tag to refer to the original version of your website may be appropriate in some cases, but in other cases it is better to use the Canonical tag.
Placing rel=canonical on the first page of paginated pages
Placing rel=canonical for the first page of paginated pages is not recommended.
Each page should have its own canonical tag, even if they are paginated.
This is because paginated pages have different content and are not considered duplicate content.
For example:
example.com/article?story=cup&page=1
example.com/article?story=cup&page=2
Pagination pages contain different content from each other, they are not considered duplicate content.
Therefore, using a canonical tag that points to the first page of pagination is not correct, as it will index the remaining pages of pagination.
Is using rel=canonical in the body tag of pages correct?
No, using a canonical tag in the body tag of web pages is also incorrect.
The canonical tag should be placed in the header section of the pages and point to the main page related to that page.
Using a canonical tag in the body of the page is not only incorrect but can also cause problems such as changes in Google search display and a decrease in the SEO of different pages.
Therefore, the best way to use the canonical tag is to place it in the header section of the page.
Final words
The rel=canonical tag is an HTML tag that informs search engines which website page should be considered as the original version.
In other words, by using this tag, you can tell search engines that the current page you are viewing is not the original version, and the original version is located at a different address.
This helps improve your website’s SEO and prevents content duplication issues across different pages.
Using the rel=canonical tag, search engines can easily be directed to your page’s original version and use it for display in search result pages.
In this case, other pages with duplicate content that may be displayed in search results are restricted and ignored, which helps improve your website’s SEO.
In summary, the canonical tag informs search engines which page should be considered the original version and prevents content duplication issues across different pages.
FAQs
The rel=canonical tag is an HTML meta tag that informs search engines which page the current page refers to and which page should be used as the primary reference for similar content.
No, using the Rel=Canonical tag helps all websites manage different versions of pages and improve their SEO.
Using the Rel=Canonical tag is only one solution for managing duplicate content and does not guarantee a reduction in duplicate content issues. It is better to use other methods such as using the Rel=Noindex tag or using 301 redirects alongside using this tag to prevent duplicate content issues. Also, make sure that the content you want to be recognized as the primary reference has the most value and useful content for users and search engines.
