{"id":35,"date":"2022-03-02T07:00:59","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T07:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vwo.com\/glossary\/canonical-url\/"},"modified":"2025-02-20T09:28:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T09:28:11","slug":"canonical-url","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vwo.com\/glossary\/canonical-url\/","title":{"rendered":"Canonical URL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is a canonical URL?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/10347851?hl=en#:~:text=A%20canonical%20URL%20is%20the,Google%20chooses%20one%20as%20canonical.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google<\/a>, a canonical URL is the preferred version or the best representative of a web page amongst a group of duplicate pages. It appears as a small code (also known as a canonical tag) on the page that tells search engines how to crawl the page and rank the importance of the content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, a canonical URL is a technical solution for duplicate content or pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s take a look at the example of duplicate pages below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>https:\/\/www.website.com\/category\/product-a\/<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>https:\/\/www.website.com\/product-a\/<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>https:\/\/website.com\/product-a\/<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>http:\/\/www.website.com\/product-a\/<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>http:\/\/website.com\/product-a\/<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>https:\/\/m.website.com\/product-a\/<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>https:\/\/www.website.com\/product-a<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>https:\/\/www.website.com\/product-A\/<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>To a user, all the above URLs display the same content. However, to any search engine, there are eight duplicate pages. Many websites may have these kinds of duplicate issues, this is where canonical URLs help search engines to show the most relevant page result to the user.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is a canonical tag?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The first canonical tag was introduced in 2009, with the main aim to help webmasters overcome duplicate or vastly-similar content that is accessible on multiple URLs.It is an HTML link element, with the attribute of <strong>rel=&#8221;canonical&#8221; <\/strong>and is found in the <strong>&lt;head&gt; <\/strong>element of a webpage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Importance of Rel=Canonical for SEO<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Search engines can easily get confused with the multiple duplicate contents available. The rel=canonical tag simplifies this and helps search engines to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Recognize the original version of the content<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Not ignore the page<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rank the page appropriately<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to spot a canonical URL&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The canonical URL for a webpage can be seen in the source of that page. This element is only visible to the search engines and not to the users. Below is an example:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"512\" height=\"165\" src=\"https:\/\/static.wingify.com\/gcp\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2022\/06\/Canonical-URL.jpeg\" alt=\"Canonical Url\" class=\"wp-image-865\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.wingify.com\/gcp\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2022\/06\/Canonical-URL.jpeg 512w, https:\/\/static.wingify.com\/gcp\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2022\/06\/Canonical-URL.jpeg?tr=w-375 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Importance of canonical URLs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Canonicalization helps in boosting SEO rankings of websites and webpages in the below manner:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They specify which URL the users should see in search results. Applying canonicals can help keep things \u201cclean.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Simplification of tracking metrics for a single product\/topic &#8211; canonical URLs help keep things simple and standardized, specifically when it comes to reporting performance to clients.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They consolidate link signals for similar or duplicate pages and manage combined content that helps in consolidating page ranking to the preferred URL.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>SEO considerations for canonical URLs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Understanding the proper use of canonicalization and setting canonical URLs is vital for an SEO practitioner. A flawed application of the same can negatively impact a website\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although in most cases <strong>rel=&#8221;canonical&#8221; <\/strong>&nbsp;is the recommended method of compiling duplicate content for search engines, below are a few other ways to be considered for canonicalization:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>301 redirect<\/strong>: This is a status code that informs search engines of the creation of a\u00a0 permanent redirect from one URL to another.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Set passive parameters in the Google Search Console<\/strong>: These parameters are usually used to track visits but don\u2019t change any content on the web page. It indicates to Google not to consider such URLs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Location hashes<\/strong>: A \u201c#\u201d at the end of a URL points a search engine to a specific spot on a website or a webpage.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>When to use a Canonical URL<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Below are some instances where a canonical URL should be used to identify duplicate content to meet SEO best practices:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>While reposting any existing content<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Blog syndication<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>While <a href=\"https:\/\/vwo.com\/ab-testing\/\">A\/B testing<\/a> different pages<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>eCommerce websites with multiple hierarchies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In case of any unintentional duplication of content<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deepcrawl.com\/blog\/best-practice\/canonical-tags-easy-dos-donts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this article<\/a> to understand more about the dos and don\u2019ts of canonical URLs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A canonical URL is the preferred version or the best representative of a web page amongst a group of duplicate pages. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":565,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Canonical URL | VWO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A canonical URL is the preferred version or the best representative of a web page amongst a group of duplicate pages.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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