{"id":20975,"date":"2020-03-22T18:50:14","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T17:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/avengering.com\/?p=20975"},"modified":"2020-03-08T10:41:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T09:41:42","slug":"what-is-a-canonical-tag-and-what-uses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/avengering.com\/en\/what-is-a-canonical-tag-and-what-uses\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Canonical Tag and What Uses?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preface What is a Canonical Tag or Canonical Link?<\/span><\/h1>\n
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The Canonical tag is a way of announcing to search engines that a URL is a copy of another homepage<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0Canonical tags can avoid problems such as duplicate contents that occur with some URLs.<\/span>\u00a0More practically, a Canonical tag specifies the version of the URI we want to display in search engines.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"canonical<\/a><\/p>\n

Why is it important to use the Canonical tag?<\/span><\/h2>\n

As we mentioned in the duplicate contents article, when the search engines see lots of URLs with the same content, we won’t get good results on the site’s SEO.<\/span>\u00a0First of all, when search robots keep track of duplicate contents, they will probably lose some of your proprietary content.<\/span>\u00a0Secondly, a large amount of duplicate content reduces site rank.<\/span>\u00a0Finally, if the search engines want to show URI among the duplicate pages in the search results, they will probably choose the wrong version.<\/span>\u00a0In general, canonicalization, or the use of the Canonical tag, ensures that the duplicate contents are properly managed.<\/span><\/p>\n

URL Problems<\/span><\/h2>\n

You might be wondering why anyone would want to create a duplicate page and don’t skimp on using the Canonical tag by sketching this assumption.<\/span>\u00a0The problem is that we humans keep the pages as a concept in our minds, but the search engines consider every URL to be a new page.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, search robots will probably access your site through the following sample URLs:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.example.com<\/span>
\nhttps:\/\/www.example.com<\/span>
\nhttp:\/\/example.com<\/span>
\nhttp:\/\/example.com\/index.php<\/span>
\nhttp:\/\/example.com\/index.php?refer=twitter<\/span><\/p>\n

From the human point of view, all of these addresses are the same page, but for search engines, each of these addresses is a separate page.<\/span>\u00a0Only in this example and for the first page of a site can five different addresses be mentioned.<\/span>\u00a0In the real world, this is just a small example of these changes in URLs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Modern content management systems and many dynamic code-based websites exacerbate this problem.<\/span>\u00a0Many sites automatically add many tags to the URLs, resulting in many URLs for the same content.<\/span>\u00a0Search parameters, categories, and monetary units are also other factors for changing URLs.<\/span>\u00a0With this description, you realize how serious the problems of duplicate contents are on websites.<\/span><\/p>\n

Solutions for using the Canonical tag<\/span><\/h2>\n

The duplicate contents problem can be very tricky, but there are some important things to consider when using the Canonical tag:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Canonical tags can be referenced on their own<\/span><\/h3>\n

There is no problem using the Canonical tag about the current address.<\/span>\u00a0In other words, if you have a home page and two duplicate pages, in addition to referring to the Canonical tag in two duplicate pages, you can also refer to the home page itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"canonical<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Be sure to place the Canonical tag on the home screen<\/span><\/h3>\n

Since the problem of duplicate pages is very common for the homepage of the site and users are linking to your homepage in various forms, it is recommended that you place the Canonical tag on the homepage to avoid unexpected problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Check Canonical tags manually<\/span><\/h3>\n

Occasionally it is found that incorrect codes and problematic modules, especially in content management system storefronts, provide different reference URLs for each of the duplicate pages, which contradicts the principle of working with this tag. Is.<\/span>\u00a0Take a look at page codes every other day to make sure this is not the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Avoid nested signals<\/span><\/h3>\n

Search engines do not consider Canonical tags that have been used inappropriately.<\/span>\u00a0In other words, avoid referencing page A to page B and then referencing page B to page A using the Canonical tag.<\/span>\u00a0And things, like referring page A to B and then redirecting page 301 to page B to A, are also not correct.<\/span>\u00a0It is also incorrect to use the Canonical tag in long chains (A- -> B, B -> C, C -> D).<\/span>\u00a0Give the right signal to search engines, otherwise search engines make unpleasant decisions for your website.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Be careful about using the Canonical tag on roughly similar pages<\/span><\/h3>\n

When it comes to canonicalization, most people think of identical pages.<\/span>\u00a0Canonical tags are used on roughly similar pages, but they should be used with caution.<\/span>\u00a0There are a lot of comments on this in general, but use on very similar pages is no problem.<\/span>\u00a0For example, on pages related to a product that has URLs that are different solely because of parameters such as user location or product color, using the Canonical tag is not the case.<\/span>\u00a0This tag may be ignored by search engines if there is a large difference in the content of the two pages.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Master the Canonical tag across multiple domains<\/span><\/h3>\n

If you own several websites, you can use the Canonical tag between domains.<\/span>\u00a0Suppose you publish content for one site and post it to other websites with the Canonical tag.<\/span>\u00a0Using the Canonical tag on other websites will transfer the credentials to the same page.<\/span>\u00a0Please note that this type of Canonical tag prevents search engines from ranking for this page.<\/span>\u00a0So if this is okay with your business rules, use it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Compare Canonical and Redirect 301 tags<\/span><\/h3>\n

One of the common questions in using Canonical Unique is whether this tag, like Redirect 301, fully validates the page.<\/span>\u00a0In many cases it may seem like the page’s credentials are being transferred to the Canonical tag, but the answer to that question is always a bit skeptical.<\/span>\u00a0Keep in mind that these two techniques have two different outcomes for users and search engines.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you redirect to page A to page B 301, users will automatically be redirected to page B and will not see page A.<\/span>\u00a0If you refer to page B using page Canonical, search engines know that page B is the homepage, but users can still view page A and B.<\/span>\u00a0Consider the working conditions and limitations to decide on one of these two solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n


\n\"canonical<\/a>Conclusion:<\/h2>\n

Canonical tags are not that complicated. They are just hard to understand at first.<\/p>\n

Remember that canonical tags are not a directive but rather a signal for the search engines. In other words, they can choose a different canonical from the one you declare.<\/p>\n

You can use the\u00a0URL<\/span>\u00a0Inspection tool<\/a>\u00a0in Google Search Console to\u00a0see both the user-declared and Google-selected canonical.<\/p>\n

\"duplicate<\/a><\/p>\n

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Here are the classifications used by Google in the Google Cover Console index coverage status report for canonical URLs:<\/p>\n