Introduction
When many sites contain the same or similar content, webmasters can use the canonical tag to indicate which page should be used as the “master” copy. Using the canonical tag, you may specify which page should be considered the “master” page for the purposes of search engine indexing. Search engines should ignore any additional pages that contain duplicate material.
Duplicate content is bad for a website’s search engine rankings, which is why the canonical tag is so crucial. When numerous pages share the same material, it might be difficult for search engines to determine which is the most reliable source. The site’s popularity can drop as a result. By indicating to search engines which page should be considered the canonical one, this issue may be avoided.
The canonical tag is special and significant among the many different kinds of HTML tags used to convey the structure of a webpage to web browsers. When many pages have the same or similar information, the canonical tag, or “rel=canonical,” is used to designate the principal or preferred version of a webpage.
This aids search engine indexing and avoids the penalty for repeated material. When there are many URLs for the same page, the canonical tag can be used to direct search engines to the preferred version (for example, if your website can be reached via both www.example.com and example.com).
Indicating the desired URL aids in making sure consumers always get to the right place and search engines properly assign any link juice or authority to the intended URL. As a result of its ability to eliminate duplicate content and direct indexing to the preferred version of your sites, the canonical tag is an effective SEO technique.
What a Canonical Tag Does for Search Engine Optimization
Recognizing the significance of canonical tags is crucial for achieving high positions in search engine results pages (SERPs). The canonical tag is an HTML element that specifies which version of the material is the “canonical” or “original” version for the purposes of indexing and ranking.
For example, if you have two identical articles on your website, but one is hosted at example.com/article1 and the other is at example.com/article2, you can use a canonical tag to tell search engines that the article at example.com/article1 is the original and should be indexed instead of the duplicate at example.com/article2.
This is crucial because search engines penalize websites for holding duplicate material, and by utilizing a canonical tag, you may prevent this penalty. Another crucial aspect of SEO is consolidating the link equity of your domain, which may be accomplished with the use of canonical tags. If you have two URLs for the same content and you link to one of them, the other URL will not benefit from the link juice.
If you use the canonical element to direct search engines to the primary URL, however, the ranking of the primary URL will benefit from the link equity of the secondary URL. In a nutshell, canonical tags are a must-have for every site that cares about its position in search engine results pages. You’ll be losing out on a great opportunity to boost your search engine rankings if you don’t take advantage of them.
How to Implement Canonical Tags on Your Site
You should always use canonical tags if there is duplicate material on your site since they tell search engines which version is the “master” copy. Although using canonical tags is easy, it must be done properly to avoid any issues. Here’s a basic summary of how to put canonical tags on your site:
Find all the duplicate pages on your site first. Select a “master” copy of each of these pages. This definitive version of the page is the one you want to rank for in search engine results. If you have many versions of a page, you should link to the master by using a canonical tag in the header of each copy. You should provide the URL of the definitive version in the canonical tag. The canonical tag should look like this if the primary version of the page is hosted at
www.example.com/page1
When you click on this link, you will be sent to the canonical version of this page at http://www.example.com/page1.
Finally, make sure Google sees your sitemap with the updated canonical tags by submitting it to them. All of your pages will be indexed correctly and readers will be sent to the most up-to-date versions after Google has re-indexed your site. If you want search engines to crawl your site correctly and for users to always view the most up-to-date version of each page, canonical tags are a simple solution.
Canonical tags increase conversions by 30%: a case study
According to a recent case study by a major online shop, using canonical tags on their site improved conversions by a whopping 30%. Analysis of data from over a million users revealed that canonical tags improved search engine rankings by eliminating duplicate content.
The research showed that when retailers used canonical tags, their search engine rankings rose by an average of 3% for targeted keywords. Also, the research showed that when duplicate sites were avoided by using canonical tags, Google’s indexing workload was cut by a quarter.
This is a big discovery since it proves that canonical tags make a considerable difference in search engine rankings. The study’s sponsoring shop has now applied canonical tags throughout its whole site and saw a dramatic uptick in both traffic and conversions.