Technical SEO
Canonical Tag
HTML element that specifies the preferred version of a page to avoid duplicate content.
On this page
What is Canonical Tag
A canonical tag (rel="canonical") is an HTML element that tells search engines which URL is the 'master' version when multiple pages have similar or identical content. It consolidates ranking signals to the preferred URL.
Example
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/products/shoes" />
How to apply it
Self-reference canonicals on every page, point duplicates to the original, use absolute URLs, ensure canonical pages are indexable and match the content.
Tip:Check that your canonical points to the version you want to rank (https vs http, www vs non-www, with/without trailing slash).
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Related terms
Duplicate ContentSubstantially similar content appearing at multiple URLs.IndexingThe process of storing and organizing crawled pages in search engine databases.
Related resources
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