Canonical URL

What is a Canonical URL?

The canonical URL is an important concept to understand when it comes to SEO. The preferred version of a webpage that you want search engines to consider as the main or original URL is referred to as the canonical URL. It aids in the prevention of duplicate content issues and consolidates all authority signals for a specific page to a single URL.

Why are Canonical URLs important?

You must use a special tag in the head section of your webpage’s HTML code to set a canonical URL. The tag instructs search engines as to which version of the URL should be considered the canonical version. If multiple URLs lead to the same content, using the canonical tag tells search engines which one to index and rank.

What are the possible problems caused by canonical URLs?

When search engines crawl your website, they may discover multiple URLs leading to the same content. This can cause problems because search engines may not know which version to rank. This may result in your website being penalized for duplicate content, lowering your SEO rankings.

You can avoid this problem by specifying a canonical URL, which ensures that search engines only index the version of the page that you want to rank for. This will help your website’s SEO because you’ll be consolidating all authority signals for a specific page to one URL.

Conclusion

In conclusion, establishing a canonical URL is an important aspect of SEO that can aid in the prevention of duplicate content issues and the consolidation of authority signals. If you aren’t already using the canonical tag on your website, you should start.