MENUMENU
  • Services
    • Services
      • Search Engine Optimization
      • International Search Marketing
      • Local Search Marketing
      • Pay Per Click Advertising
      • Social Media Marketing
      • Email Marketing
      • Conversion Rate Optimization
      • Public Relations
      • Website Design & Development
      • Reporting & Analytics
      • Amazon Marketing Services
      • Digital Marketing Strategy
      • Franchise Marketing
  • Case Studies
  • About Us
    • About Ignite Visibility
      • Our Story
      • Clients
      • Our Values
      • Diversity & Inclusion
      • Our Team
      • UCSD Extension Courses
      • Careers
  • Thought Leadership
      • Our Blog
      • Podcast
      • SEO: The Movie
      • Social Media Marketing: The Movie
      • Book: The Forecaster Method
      • Attend Our Next Digital Marketing Event
  • Contact
  • 619.752.1955
Home / Search Engine Optimization / What Is Canonicalization? How To Use Canonical Tags

What Is Canonicalization? How To Use Canonical Tags

March 14, 2020 By John E Lincoln

You may have read a few SEO articles that mention canonicalization. But do you know what it is and why you should care?

If not, then read on. It’s an important concept in SEO.

In fact, if you don’t canonicalize your web pages, you’ll likely limit your online reach.

What You’ll Learn

    • What canonicalization means
    • Duplicate content on your website
    • How to implement canonical URLs
    • What is a rel=canonical tag?
    • How search engines treat rel=canonical tags
    • Using Yoast SEO plugin to manage canonicals

The Definition

Canonicalization is an optimization technique that prevents search engines from registering duplicate content on the web.

What is canonicalization?

What is canonicalization? (source)

Remember: duplicate content is a big no-no. If Google thinks you’re copying somebody else’s content, your website’s rank will suffer.

It might even disappear from the search results.

But it’s not just about plagiarizing. You also don’t want to duplicate your own content.

Why? Because search engines get confused about which page to index. Search bots don’t want to index multiple URLs that have the same content for obvious reasons.

So when you implement canonicals on your website, you’re making it easier for search engines to eliminate duplicate content and index the “right” pages.

That’s a win for both you and them.

Duplicate Content on My Own Site?

After reading the previous section, you might be thinking to yourself: “I don’t have duplicate content on my site. I don’t need to read any more about canonicalization.”

Are you sure about that?

In fact, you might have duplicate content and not even know it.

For example, if your website works with both the www prefix and without the www prefix, then you could have two URLs with the same content:

      • https://mysite.com/my-content
      • https://www.mysite.com/my-content

To search engines, those are two different URLs with the same content. That means you have duplicate content on your site.

Or maybe you’re using UTM parameters to track how people found your site. Take a look at these two URLs, for example:

      • https://mysite.com/my-content
      • https://mysite.com/my-content?utm=Facebook

Once again, there are two URLs there that point to the same content.

If you’re running an ecommerce site, it’s really easy to have two or more URLs pointing to identical product detail or category pages. That’s because ecommerce engines make frequent use of request parameters. Consider these two URLs that reference the same content:

      • https://myecommercesite.com/white-t-shirt
      • https://myecommercesite.com/white-t-shirt?size=large

In all of the cases mentioned above, the best thing to do is to use canonicals to point to the “correct” web page.

How Does It Work?

There are a few different ways to implement canonical URLs.

First, you can go into Google Search Console and specify your preferred canonical domain. That’s pretty easy to do and it covers the entire site.

The downside to that approach is that it only solves domain-specific issues, like the www vs. non-www URL I covered in the previous section.

Adding your preferred canonical URL in Google Search Console

Adding your preferred canonical URL in Google Search Console

Also, that only works for Google.

Another approach is to use the rel=canonical HTTP header. That involves setting a name/value pair in the HTTP response.

That’s a fairly complicated answer to the problem, though. Encoding response parameters requires advanced web development.

Yet another option is to use 301 redirects. That’s a “forward” that sends visitors from one URL to another.

So if somebody visits https://www.mysite.com/my-content, that person will get redirected to https://mysite.com/my-content.

However, it’s best to go the route only if you’re moving a web page from one address to another. It’s not ideal for canonicalization.

The most common approach for canonicalization involves adding the rel=canonical tag to the header of the HTML document.

What Is a rel=canonical Tag?

It looks funny, doesn’t it? That’s because it’s the easiest way to abbreviate the tag when writing about it.

Simply put, the rel=canonical tag is an HTML element that tells search engines about the original source of content. You can think of it as a citation.

What does a rel=canonical tag look like?

What does a rel=canonical tag look like? (source)

When you add a rel=canonical tag, you’re telling search bots, “This isn’t the original content. The original content is located at this other URL.”

As a result, the search engines won’t treat that content as duplicate. You’ll avoid an SEO penalty.

By the way, here’s what the tag looks like:

<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://mysite.com/my-content”/>

As you can see, it’s a <link> element with the rel attribute set to “canonical.”  The href attribute is set to the URL of the original page.

How Search Bots Treat the rel=canonical Tag

When search bots see the rel=canonical tag, they don’t index the page.

Isn’t that bad? No.

That’s because search bots instead index the page identified by the href attribute. In the example above, search bots would index https://mysite.com/my-content.

So your correct page gets indexed. The page with the duplicate content doesn’t get indexed.

That is exactly what you want.

It also happens to be what the search engines want.

Now What?

Now that you know about canonicalization and how it works, should you use it on your website?

In a word: yes.

As we’ve seen, it’s best to implement canonicalization with the rel=canonical tag.

Keep in mind: if you have thousands of pages on your website, then you’ll need to update thousands of pages.

But that might be easier than you think.

Adding Canonicalization With Yoast SEO

Chances are pretty good that you’re using WordPress as your content management system (CMS) of choice. If that’s the case, then it’s a snap to add canonicalization to your site.

Just download the Yoast SEO plugin and install it on your site.

And that’s pretty much it.

Really. That’s all you need to do.

Why? Because Yoast is smart enough to add canonicals to all your web pages.

If you want proof, just visit your website and right-click on the page. Then, select “View Source” from the context menu that appears.

Use Ctrl+F to search for text. Search for “<link”.

You should see something like this:

<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://mysite.com/my-content”/>

Note: you may have to pass a few other <link> elements before you get to the rel=canonical.

When you see the rel=canonical on your web page, that’s proof that Yoast added it for you.

In fact, Yoast will add it to all your pages. You don’t have to do anything else.

However, Yoast does give you the ability to customize the canonical. To do that, just edit your page or post and scroll down to below the content.

In the Yoast SEO section, click on the Settings icon. It’s shaped like a gear.

Yoast SEO advanced settings for automated canonicals

Yoast SEO advanced settings for automated canonicals (source)

Scroll down to the bottom of the tab and you’ll see a field where you can enter the canonical URL. Put the correct URL in there and click the Update button in the left-hand sidebar.

Yoast will use the URL you entered as the canonical instead of the default URL.

Wrapping It Up

It’s important to understand canonicalization if you’re serious about optimizing your website for search. Otherwise, you could limit your site’s visibility in the search results.

Once you do understand it, it’s best to use canonicalization on all your pages to prevent duplicate content issues. Fortunately, tools like Yoast SEO make it easy to do that.

About John E Lincoln

John Lincoln (MBA) is CEO of Ignite Visibility (a 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Inc. 5000 company) a highly sought-after digital marketing strategist, industry speaker and author of two books, "The Forecaster Method" and "Digital Influencer." Over the course of his career, Lincoln has worked with over 1,000 online businesses ranging from small startups to amazing clients such as Office Depot, Tony Robbins, Morgan Stanley, Fox, USA Today, COX and The Knot World Wide. John Lincoln is the editor of the Ignite Visibility blog. While he is a contributor, he does not write all of the articles and in many cases he is supported to ensure timely content.

You may also like:

  • SEO Chrome Extensions
    20 SEO Chrome Extensions to Download Now
  • History of Google Algorithm Updates
    History of Google Algorithm Updates – History Timeline for SEOs
  • SEO Reporting
    SEO Reporting The Right Way: SEO Reports Your Team Needs

  • Quality Over Quantity: The Word Count Debate for Content Length

Search Here

NEWSLETTER // SIGN UP NOW

About The Editor

John E Lincoln, CEO

John Lincoln is CEO of Ignite Visibility, one of the top digital marketing agencies in the nation and a 6x Inc. 5,000 company. Lincoln is consistently named one of the top marketing experts in the industry. He has been recipient of the Search Engine Land "Search Marketer of the Year" award, named the #1 SEO consultant in the USA by Clutch.co, most admired CEO and 40 under 40. Lincoln has written two books (The Forecaster Method and Digital Influencer) and made two movies (SEO: The Movie and Social Media Marketing: The Movie) on digital marketing. He is a digital marketing strategy adviser to some of the biggest names in business. John Lincoln is the editor of the Ignite Visibility blog. While he is a major contributor, he does not write all of the articles.

LEARN MORE ABOUT JOHN

Contact Us. Let’s Chat!

  • Hidden

Marketing Guides

SEO In 2020: How To Prepare For Major Disruption

"SEO: The Movie" - Have You Seen Our Film? Watch Now

"Social Media Marketing: The Movie" - Have You Seen Our Film? Watch Now

Amazon Seller Central vs Vendor Central

Listen To The Podcast Featuring The Best Minds In Marketing

John Lincoln Interviews Global Director of Digital Marketing & Strategy at Qualcomm, Jessica Jensen

Check Out 227 Free Online Marketing Classes

The 2020 Guide To Dominating SEO With Advanced Schema

Learn More About Our Digital Marketing Agency

Learn More About Our SEO Services

Learn More About Our Paid Media Services

SELECT CATEGORY

Become A Contributor

Interested in writing for Ignite Visibility?

APPLY NOW

Services

  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Pay Per Click Management
  • Conversion Rate Optimization
  • Website Design & Development
  • Social Media Company
  • Public Relations
  • Amazon Marketing Services
  • Franchise Marketing
  • International Services
  • Digital Marketing Agency Services

About

  • Our Team
  • Our Values
  • Clients
  • Reviews
  • UCSD Extension Courses
  • Careers
  • Tools & Resources
  • Sitemap

Contact

4250 Executive Square, Suite 100
La Jolla, California 92037

619.752.1955

Join The Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest from Ignite Visibility.

google parther logo

©2022 Ignite Visibility. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy