{"id":29836,"date":"2024-11-12T12:40:19","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T12:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/blog\/wiki\/canonical-tag\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T09:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T09:23:08","slug":"Canonical_Tag","status":"publish","type":"wiki","link":"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/Canonical_Tag","title":{"rendered":"Canonical Tag"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Definition\">Definition<\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"thumb tright\">\n<div class=\"thumbinner\" style=\"width:452px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/images\/9\/9b\/Canonical-Tag.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Canonical Tag\" src=\"\/en\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/9\/9b\/Canonical-Tag.png\/450px-Canonical-Tag.png\" width=\"450\" height=\"340\" class=\"thumbimage\" srcset=\"\/en\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/9\/9b\/Canonical-Tag.png\/675px-Canonical-Tag.png 1.5x, \/en\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/9\/9b\/Canonical-Tag.png\/900px-Canonical-Tag.png 2x\" \/><\/a>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"thumbcaption\"><b>Figure:<\/b> Canonical Tag &#8211; Author: Seobility &#8211; License: <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/creative-commons-license-by-sa-4-0\" title=\"Creative Commons License BY-SA 4.0\">CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A canonical link (also called canonical tag, canonical URL or URL canonicalization) is included in the HTML code of a webpage to indicate the original source of content. This markup is used to address SEO problems with <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Duplicate_Content\" title=\"Duplicate Content\">duplicate content<\/a> which arise when different pages with different URLs contain identical or nearly identical content. This duplicate content problem can arise in a number of ways, often without the website administrator\u2019s knowledge, including when:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> a webpage is accessible with or without \u201cwww\u201d prefix in its URL<\/li>\n<li> a webpage is accessible via \u201cHTTP\u201d and \u201cHTTPS\u201d protocols<\/li>\n<li> there are multiple versions of a webpage using different URLs (for example a print version or when using sort categories etc.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For SEO purposes, the canonical link shows Google and other <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Search_Engine\" title=\"Search Engine\">search engines<\/a> which URL corresponds to the original source of content and should be shown in search results. It is added as a <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Meta_Tags\" title=\"Meta Tags\">meta tag<\/a> to every URL version of a given webpage and indicates the canonical URL. Note that the link is only a recommendation; Google can ignore it if it is used inappropriately.\n<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, every page of a site should contain a canonical link to avoid the risk of duplicate content in the future.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Correct_use_of_canonical_links\">Correct use of canonical links<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A canonical link is added to the &lt;head&gt; of a webpage to indicate the canonical URL version. For example, if the webpages\n<\/p>\n<pre>https:\/\/www.example.com\/product.html<\/pre>\n<p>and\n<\/p>\n<pre>https:\/\/www.example.com\/product_print.html<\/pre>\n<p> (the print version)<\/p>\n<p>refer to the same content and you want to indicate to search engines that the first one is the canonical URL version, you can add the following link to the print version page:\n<\/p>\n<pre>&lt;link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.example.com\/product.html\" \/&gt;<\/pre>\n<p>Alternatively, you can include the link in the HTTP response header.\n<\/p>\n<p>When using canonical tags, be aware that both pages must contain (almost) the same content. This means that text and images on both pages should be largely identical. If the pages merely relate to the same topic but don&#8217;t contain the same content, this can result in search engines ignoring the link \u2013 or even in Google disregarding all such links on the website in future. For instance, this can happen when multiple canonical links are set on one page.\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"checkform\">\n<div class=\"hl\">\n<h3>Canonical Tag Checker<\/h3>\n<p>Check if you set your canonical tags correctly<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<form action=\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/seocheck\/check#canonical\" method=\"get\">\n<input type=\"text\" name=\"url\" required=\"required\" placeholder=\"https:\/\/www.example.com\/\"><input type=\"submit\" value=\"Check Tags\"><br \/>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<p>You should also ensure that the link\u2019s target page actually exists, and does not contain a \u201cnoindex\u201d Robots meta tag. In addition, it should, of course, be the page that you want Google to display in search results.\n<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, this kind of link cannot be used for <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Pagination\" title=\"Pagination\">paginated webpages<\/a>. This means that you must not add a canonical link to pages 2, 3, etc. which points to page 1 of a pagination. These pages are often thematically related, but they aren\u2019t identical content. If canonical links were used in this case, only the first page would be shown in Google\u2019s search results, while all the other pages would be ignored. An acceptable SEO workaround would be to create an overview page with the content of all paginated pages and to use the canonical link to indicate that this page should appear in search results.\n<\/p>\n<p>Another aspect to keep in mind when using Canonical Links is that the link is in the head and not in the body area of the page.\n<\/p>\n<p>To make sure that you don\u2019t overlook any of these requirements, we have put together a short checklist of the key points:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Is the content of both pages (almost) identical?<\/li>\n<li> Is there only one canonical link on each page?<\/li>\n<li> Does the target page actually exist?<\/li>\n<li> Are there \u2018noindex\u2019 meta tags on the target page?<\/li>\n<li> Is the canonical page the one you want to appear in search results?<\/li>\n<li> Has an overview page been created for paginated pages?<\/li>\n<li> Is the link in the head, rather than the body of the HTML Code?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Importance_of_.22self-canonicalization.22\">Importance of &#8220;self-canonicalization&#8221;<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>This is the practice of adding a canonical tag to a page that points to its own URL as the canonical version. While it may seem redundant at first, self-canonicalization is critical for several reasons:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> <b>Preventing unintentional duplication:<\/b> Even if you believe that there are no duplicate versions of a page, unforeseen circumstances or site changes could lead to the creation of duplicate content in the future. By self-canonicalizing, you ensure that the original page retains its authority and is recognized by search engines as the primary source.<\/li>\n<li> <b>Protection from scrapers:<\/b> If another site scrapes and republishes your content without changing the canonical tag, the scraped content will point back to your original page as the canonical version, helping to maintain SEO value.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"SEO_advantages_of_canonical_tags\">SEO advantages of canonical tags<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The advantage of a canonical tag is that it can be added directly to the page in question \u2013 you don\u2019t need access rights to the server configuration, as you would for server-side <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Redirect\" title=\"Redirect\">redirects<\/a>. Further, you can use the tag to specify a standard page without needing to redirect to another URL.\n<\/p>\n<p>In addition, when you use a canonical link Google no longer splits the ranking across the individual URLs, but bundles it, improving the canonical page\u2019s ranking in search results. All this makes canonical links an important tool for SEO which is supported by search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Related_links\">Related links<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li> <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external free\" href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/139066\">https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/139066<\/a><\/li>\n<li> <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external free\" href=\"https:\/\/yoast.com\/rel-canonical\/\">https:\/\/yoast.com\/rel-canonical\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n    {\n      \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\/\",\n      \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n      \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/images\/9\/9b\/Canonical-Tag.png\",\n      \"license\": \"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\",\n      \"acquireLicensePage\": \"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/creative-commons-license-by-sa-4-0\"\n    }\n    <\/script>\n<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@type\": \"Article\",\n  \"author\": {\n    \"@type\": \"Organization\",\n    \"name\": \"Seobility\",\n    \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/\"\n  }\n}\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Definition Figure: Canonical Tag &#8211; Author: Seobility &#8211; License: CC BY-SA 4.0 A canonical link (also called canonical tag, canonical URL or URL canonicalization) is included in the HTML code of a webpage to indicate the original source of content. This markup is used to address SEO problems with duplicate content which arise when different [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29836","wiki","type-wiki","status-publish","hentry","wiki_categories-search-engine-optimization","wiki_categories-web-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Canonical Tag - Definition + Best Practices - Seobility Wiki<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A canonical link (also called canonical tag) is included in the HTML code of a web page to indicate the original source of content.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/Canonical_Tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canonical Tag - Definition + Best Practices - Seobility Wiki\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A canonical link (also called canonical tag) is included in the HTML code of a web page to indicate the original source of content.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/Canonical_Tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Seobility\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/seobility.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-26T09:23:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/seobility-og-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@seobility_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"ScholarlyArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/wiki\\\/Canonical_Tag#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/wiki\\\/Canonical_Tag\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Seobility Wiki Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c838e66a3b46262b4c963df5cd5b2d8a\"},\"headline\":\"Canonical Tag\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-12T12:40:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-26T09:23:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/wiki\\\/Canonical_Tag\"},\"wordCount\":890,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/wiki\\\/Canonical_Tag#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/wiki\\\/Canonical_Tag\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/wiki\\\/Canonical_Tag\",\"name\":\"Canonical Tag - Definition + Best Practices - Seobility Wiki\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-12T12:40:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-26T09:23:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"A canonical link (also called canonical tag) is included in the HTML code of a web page to indicate the original source of content.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/wiki\\\/Canonical_Tag#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/wiki\\\/Canonical_Tag\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/wiki\\\/Canonical_Tag#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wiki\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/wiki\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Canonical Tag\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/wiki\\\/29836\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.seobility.net\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Seobility\",\"description\":\"Online SEO Software &amp; 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