Canonical Tag

What is Canonical Tag?

A canonical tag is an HTML element included in a page's webpage or source code typically (i.e. rel=canonical). The tag is meant to signal to search engines that the indicated page is the authoritative or preferred version. In situations where there are several pages with similar or identical content, the canonical tag directs search engines to prefer one URL among others; this helps in avoiding any SEO issues related to duplicate content. The tag ensures the correct page is indexed and ranked over alternatives thereby enhancing on-site SEO.

What's the TLDR?

Identifying a "Master" or "Original" version: Canonical tags prevent duplicate content issues by "tagging" a piece of content as the preferred version over similar pieces.
SEO improvement: Using canonical tags consolidates ranking signals, boosting a page's on-site SEO and ranking results
Implementation: Add a <link rel="canonical" href="URL" /> tag in the HTML <head> section, pointing to the primary URL.
Troubleshooting: Regularly audit for issues like incorrect URLs or missing tags using tools like Google Search Console.
Best practices: Ensure consistent tags, avoid broken links, and use canonical tags only for duplicate or similar content.

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Why Canonical Tags Matter

As a site has increasingly more content and similar content published across mulitple websites, canonical tags become increasingly important for SEO. Without them, search engines might get confused by multiple URLs with similar content, potentially splitting the ranking power between these pages. This may result in lower and fewer rankings overall. Employing canonical tags ensure that search spiders acknowledge the main version of the content. This helps to consolidate ranking for and enhancing page visibility of the original version.

How to Implement Canonical Tags

Add canonical tags by updating the HTML on a site. Although editing HTML can feel daunting, implementing canonical tags is relatively straightforward. Add an HTML snippet as follows:

<link rel="canonical" href="URL" />

to the tag in the <head> section of the page's HTML code, directing to the master URL. Some sites will have a UI that allows the user to update the master URL without directly editing the HTML.

Note that an incorrect implementation can lead to SEO issues. Double-check to ensure that the canonical URL specified is correct.

Common Use Cases

E-commerce: Canonical tags are especially useful in e-commerce sites, where similar products might have different URLs due to filtering and sorting options. For example, a product page may be accessible via multiple URLs based on color or size variations. Using a canonical tag on these pages can redirect search spiders to the primary product page, preventing the dilution of ranking signals across multiple URLs.
Newsletters: Writers who produce a newsletter may wish to use a platform to automate their workflow of sending recurring emails or posts to their audience and subscribers. Some platforms, such as Beehiiv, allow for canonical tags where content creators can redirect search bots to the original site.

Troubleshooting Canonical Tag Issues

Sometimes, canonical tags can fail to achieve the intended result. Search engines can then choose which version to rank higher or split the traffic.

These issues can occur because of incorrect URLs, missing tags, or other technical issues with how the canonical tag was created.

Creators can and should periodically audit the website for issues. For Chrome users, this can be done by going to:

"More Tools" in the upper right-hand corner of the browser, then
Choose "Developer Tools" which pops out the inspection window;
Go to Elements and look under the <head> tag of the HTML code for the appropriate canonical tags

From there, users can resolve issues and perform a continuous review to ensure canonical tag implementation is done appropriately. Taking the audit one step further, tools like Google Search Console can help determine how search engines interpret the HTML elements.

Best Practices

Use canonical tags for maximum results by following best practices:

Ensure tags are consistent,
Check that links are not broken, and
Only use canonical tags for duplicate content

Do not use canonical tags for completely different content. The only situation for canonical tags is if the content is either duplicate or almost identical.

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