If you are a blogger and questions come to your mind what is Canonical Tag? How to create a Canonical Tag? Why is Canonical Tag important in SEO? What are the benefits of Canonical Tag?
If you are looking for answers to these questions, then you have come to the right article, because in this article we are going to answer these questions. Be sure to read this article till the end because Canonical Tag is very important from the technical SEO point of view.
So without wasting much time, let’s go straight to our article and try to know in detail what is Canonical Tag and why is it important in SEO?
What is a Canonical URL
What is a Canonical Tag? Before knowing, you have to know about Canonical URLs. Because without this you will have trouble understanding the canonical tag. A Canonical URL is the URL for the main version of the duplicate page, as determined by search engines such as Google.
Google doesn’t want to waste resources or repeatedly display search results on web pages that don’t provide any unique value. Therefore, when Google finds duplicate (or nearly identical) web pages or content on a website, it selects one Canonical URL to represent them all. After this, it gives priority to this webpage during Indexing and Ranking.
For example, consider the following URL:
Canonical URL: https://example.com/blog/
Alternate URL: https://example.com/blog/?page=1
In this example, Google will likely select Canonical URLs for Indexing and Ranking. The Canonical Page is also called the “Principal,” “Primary,” or “Representative” version. (A web page with a canonical URL is called a Canonical Page.)
Note: Google doesn’t always make the decision you want. However, you can influence Canonicalization by using the canonical tag.
What is a Canonical Tag
A Canonical Tag, also known as a Rel=’Canonical’ tag, is a snippet of HTML code. The canonical tag is used to prevent problems caused by identical or “duplicate” content appearing on multiple URLs.
To solve all these problems, in February 2009, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft together created Canonical Tag.
In SEO, Canonical Tags suggest to Google which web pages and which versions it should index, consolidate link juice (ranking strength), and show in the search results page.
Found in the <head> section of a webpage’s HTML source code, a Canonical Tag looks like this.
Canonical Tag Basic Structure
<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://Example.com/” />
Typically, Canonical Tags point to a Preferred Page from an alternative webpage.
But using Self-Referencing Canonical is a good option for your website.
In other words, every Canonical page must have a Canonical Tag pointing to its own URL.
Let us understand this with an example. If you are a website owner and you have mobile and desktop versions of your website, then you can have multiple versions of a webpage.
Now, if you want search engines to give more preference to mobile web pages, you need to add a Self-Referencing Canonical tag to the mobile version to tell search engines to index those web pages. This means that the URL associated with Rel=Canonical is the page itself. Which the search engine has to index.
In other words, once you implement the canonical tag, search engines know which web pages to dismiss and which web pages to display in SERPs.
Definition of Canonical Tag
HTML code written in the head section of the blog which directs the search engine to what we have added in the Canonical Tag. That is the main URL of my blog or webpage. Any other duplicate or similar URLs should be ignored.
To understand it in other words, whatever URL is added to the canonical tag of the blog. That URL is the main URL of your webpage. Apart from this, all other URLs are duplicates of the main URL.
Why is Canonical Tag used?
By now you have learned what is Canonical Tag? Now we will know why the canonical tag is used.
Many times it happens that multiple URLs of a webpage or a blog are created. This leads to a very complex problem of duplicate content, but when search engines crawl multiple URLs with identical (or very similar) content, it can cause many SEO problems.
First, if search crawlers have to wade through too much duplicate content, they may miss some of your important content. Second, mass duplication can weaken your rankings.
Despite this, even if your articles rank, search engines may choose the wrong URL as the “Main URL”. Using Canonicalization helps you control your duplicate content.
Problem with URL
अब आप सोच रहे होंगे कि “कोई किसी वेबपेज की नकल क्यों करेगा?” और गलत तरीके से यह मान लें कि Canonicalization कोई ऐसी चीज़ नहीं है जिसके बारे में आपको चिंता करने की ज़रूरत है। समस्या यह है कि हम, मनुष्य के रूप में, एक वेबपेज को एक Concept के रूप में सोचते हैं, जैसे कि आपकी वेबसाइट का Home Page। लेकिन सर्च इंजनों के लिए, प्रत्येक Unique URL एक अलग वेबपेज होता है।
उदाहरण के लिए, सर्च क्रॉलर निम्नलिखित सभी तरीकों से आपके Home Page तक पहुंचने के URL समझता है।
- http://www.example.com (without SSL Certificate)
- https://www.example.com
- http://example.com (without WWW)
- http://example.com/AMP (AMP version of the website)
- https://www.example.com/?m=1 (Mobile version in Blogger)
To a human being, all these URLs represent the same webpage. However, to a search crawler, each of these URLs is a unique “webpage.” In this example, we can see that there are five copies of the Home Page in circulation. However, in reality, this is just a small sample of the variations you will encounter.
Modern content management systems (CMS) and dynamic, HTML websites exacerbate this problem. Many websites automatically add tags, allowing more than one URL for the same webpage, which can lead to thousands of duplicate URLs on your site and you won’t even realize it.
Using canonical tags will solve this problem. Because of this, the search engine bots come to know which is the main URL of your webpage. Due to this there is no problem of Duplicate Content or Canonical Issues in Google Search Console.
Benefits of Canonical Tag
There are many benefits of canonical tag but the following are some of its advantages.
- The problem of duplicate content can be avoided with the help of Canonical Tag.
- With the help of Canonical Tag, the ranking of your webpage in search engine result pages is improved.
- With the help of Canonical Tag, indexing of the webpage is done correctly.
- With the help of Canonical Tag, it becomes easier for search engine bots to understand whether to index any of your URLs and not to index any other URL.
How to create a canonical tag
Now we are going to tell you the easiest method to create a Canonical Tag and add it to the website, so read it till the end and know how a Canonical Tag is created.
Step #1 – To create a Canonical Tag, first you have to go to the Canonical Tag Generator website.
Step #2 – Now a webpage will open in front of you in which you will have to enter the URL of your website and click on Submit.
Step #3 – Submit Your Canonical Tag is ready. Now after copying this code, you will have to paste this code in the head section of the theme of your website.
How to Add Canonical Tag in Blogger
The canonical tag is already added in Blogger, but some themes of Blogger are like this. In which a Canonical Tag is not added. If you select a theme that does not already have a Canonical Tag added, you may face a Canonical Issue in Google Search Console.
To avoid this problem, you have to add a Canonical Tag in that theme. Whose complete process we have explained below.
- After logging in to Blogger Dashboard, you will see an option of Theme on the left side. On which you have to click.
- After this, you have to click on Edit HTML.
- After this, the HTML file of the theme will open in front of you. Here you have to find the <head> section by pressing Ctrl + F.
- Below the <head> section you have to paste the code of the Canonical Tag of your website.
How to Add Canonical Tag in WordPress
You can set up the canonical tag on your WordPress site using the WordPress SEO plugin.
Here we will tell you how to set the canonical tag in the two most popular Yoast SEO and Rank Math SEO. So let us know what is its complete process.
#1 – Yoast SEO Plugin
If you’re using the Yoast SEO plugin, go to Yoast SEO options to set the canonical tag on any webpage or post.
After this, you have to click on “Advanced”.
Here you will get a “Canonical URL” option. Where you can set the Canonical URL of the page.
#2 – Rank Math SEO Plugin
If you are using the Rank Math SEO plugin, go to the “Rank Math SEO” box on any page or post.
After this, you have to click on “Advanced”.
After this, you will get the “Canonical URL” option below. Can set Canonical URL.
Note: The Canonical Tag is already added to the WordPress SEO plugin. You do not need to do anything about this. But if you want to change it, you can change it.
Why is Canonical Tag important for SEO?
Canonical tags are an essential part of any SEO strategy, enabling your website to rank higher. It does this in many ways.
First, it tells search engines which URL version is the “correct” one, prevents duplicate content from ranking, and ensures search engines know which webpage to index.
Additionally, a canonical tag aids your SEO efforts in other ways, such as
#1 – Syndicated Content: The canonical tag allows you to better manage syndicated content. When you syndicate content from one website to another, it is important to ensure that search engines still reference the original content. To indicate which page you want to index, you need to add the Rel=” Canonical” tag to the header of your website.
#2 – Improved Rankings: When you have multiple versions (URLs) of a webpage or article, add canonical signals to search engines that you want people to visit the specific webpage you index. This improves the ranking of your website.
#3 – Tracking: Canonical tags help you track traffic from different sources. For example, if you have two URL versions, say, one with www and one without www. This can help you determine which version generates more traffic.
#4 – Regular Search Engine Crawling: Search engine bots crawl Canonical URLs regularly. Because Google understands that you want to index this content and deliver it to the users.
How to Redirect Duplicate Pages to Canonical Pages?
URL Redirect sends search engines and users from one page to another.
If you do not need to keep an alternate version of a webpage, then Redirection is the best duplication method. But you don’t want to remove that URL completely.
For example, when you have HTTP and HTTPS versions of the same webpage. Google supports the HTTPS version. Therefore, redirecting the HTTP version to the HTTPS version is good for your SEO.
To get quick results, Google recommends 3xx Redirects (Server-Side Redirects). This includes 301 Redirect. You can redirect your duplicate pages to 301.
Conclusion
In today’s article, you learned what is Canonical Tag? And why is it important for SEO? we have provided you complete information related to Canonical Tag. So that you do not have to waste your time on the internet to get this information.
If you still have any questions related to Canonical Tag, you can ask us by commenting. If this article has helped you in any way, then do share it with your friends on social media.
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