Hey everyone! Today, let’s dive into the world of canonical pages and why they’re super important for Search Engine Optimization. You might be asking, what exactly is a canonical page and why is it such a big deal?
What is canonical page ?
Simply put, a canonical text is the main source that’s considered the ultimate reference on a topic. In a similar way, In the world of web development and SEO, we say that a canonical page is the ultimate reference of the topic or the preferred version of a webpage.
Think of it like this: when you inform a search engine that the canonical page of page-A is page-B it is like saying, “Page-A has useful information, but it is redundant. Please refer to page-B, which is considered the ‘official ‘ page and the ultimate reference for the content.
How to specify that a page has canonical page?
Now, how can you specify that the canonical page of page-A is Page-B? It’s actually quite simple and straightforward: by adding a specific tag within the head section of the HTML code of page-A.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Page-A</title>
<link rel="canonical" href="https://geekfomo.com/page-b/" />
</head>
<body>
...
</body>
</html>In this tag, which is known as the canonical link element, you specify the rel attribute as ” canonical” and provide the URL of the canonical page — the URL of page-B — in the href attribute.
Each individual page on your website should have a single, unique canonical URL. It is of utmost importance to include this tag only once within the HTML code of the page. If you mistakenly add this tag more than once, it can lead to confusion for search engines, potentially resulting in errors appearing in the search console. This confusion might also cause the search engine to arbitrarily select one canonical tag to follow, while disregarding the others.
When to use canonical page?
Having established a clear understanding of what a canonical page is and the method for informing search engines about it, the next step is to delve into the specific circumstances under which you should implement canonical pages. Additionally, we will consider situations where alternative strategies might prove to be more effective.
To keep your SEO game strong, it’s a good idea to add the canonical link element to every page on your site, even if the content is unique. In cases where the content is only found on one page, point the canonical URL back to that same page. This strategy is especially useful when you start to get traffic with UTM query parameters which are to track traffic from your marketing campaigns.
when you have similar content
The first scenario where you definitely need canonical page is when you have similar content on multiple URLs.
For example, think about an ecommerce site. You might have product listings that are mostly the same but sorted differently on two different pages. One page might sort products from highest to lowest price, and another from lowest to highest price.Search engines don’t care about the product order. So, it’s better to pick one URL as the canonical page, telling the search engine which page is the main source.
Disallowed Urls can be displayed in search results without content
It’s also worth noting that while robots.txt can help manage which pages are crawled, it doesn’t guarantee that those pages won’t be indexed if other pages link to them. In this case, Google will display only the URL of the page without any content, meaning the page itself remains hidden, but its existence is acknowledged by the search engine.
Same page is different from similar content
It is important not to be confused when the pages being served are exactly identical in the content – that is the HTML code. For instance, this can occur when one version of a page is served with HTTPS while the other page is not, or when one version is served with the www prefix and the other page is without it.In these cases, it is better to use a 301 redirect to properly address and resolve duplicate content issue.
When you add a canonical URL to a page, it’s like suggesting the search engine it should not index the page and move its SEO signals, such as links to it to the canonical page. But remember, the search engine might follow this suggestion, or it might ignore it, still index the page, or even pick another page as the canonical one. This isn’t what we want. When content is exactly the same, we want both users and search engines to go straight to our chosen version of the URL.
When you publish the same content in other sites
The second scenario is when publish the same content in other sites for content syndication purposes or guest posting. This means when you share your original content on different websites, you better make sure that a canonical link element on the page on the other site is pointing back to the original page on your site. This way, search engines know which page to prioritize, avoiding any potential duplicate content issues.
I know, it is not always possible. You might do not access to edit the pages in the other site and you depends on the good will of the owners of the site, but you can request them to add the canonical link element. If they agree, it will help in consolidating the ranking signals for your content and avoid any potential penalties for duplicate content.
When you have different formats to the same content
The third scenario arises when you have identical content available in different formats. For instance, consider providing a printable version of a webpage that excludes the header and footer. In such cases, it is advisable to add a canonical tag to the main version of the page. another example is when you have the same content in both HTML and PDF formats.
By doing so, you help search engines understand which version is the master copy, avoiding duplicate content issues and ensuring proper indexing.
When you have session IDs or UTM parameters in query string
Another scenario where canonical pages prove to be beneficial is when you serve pages that include query parameters such as session IDs or UTM parameters, which are used to track and measure digital marketing campaigns. These parameters are typically irrelevant to search engines and usually serve the same content.
By designating a canonical page to the version of the page without these unimportant parameters, you can ensure that search engines correctly identify which version of the page should be considered the primary one.
The Power of Canonical Pages
I sincerely hope that by this point, you have come to fully grasp that canonical pages act as an exceptionally powerful tool for the adept management of duplicate content. These pages are also instrumental in ensuring that search engines appropriately prioritize and index the most relevant pages. we see four distinct scenarios in which the canonical page truly excels, and remember that it is essential to recognize situations where employing the 301 redirect is more suitable instead of using the canonical page.
