Canonical

Description

In the digital marketing industry, a canonical URL helps search engines understand the preferred or 'master' version of a web page. This is particularly important in scenarios where you have multiple versions of the same page, such as a product page that can be reached via different URLs. By specifying a canonical URL, you are essentially telling search engines which version of the page they should index and rank. This helps to consolidate the SEO value of these duplicate pages, preventing any dilution of rankings and ensuring that link equity is passed to the preferred page. Using canonical URLs is a best practice for improving your site's SEO and user experience, as it helps avoid issues related to duplicate content, which can confuse both users and search engines.

Examples

• An e-commerce website like Amazon might have multiple URLs for the same product due to sorting options. For example, a product page could be accessed via 'amazon.com/product?color=red' or 'amazon.com/product?color=blue'. Using a canonical URL like 'amazon.com/product' helps consolidate SEO value.
• A blog might have the same article available under different categories, like 'blog.com/tech/article' and 'blog.com/news/article'. By setting 'blog.com/tech/article' as the canonical URL, the site ensures that search engines know which version to index.

Additional Information

• Canonical URLs are implemented using the 'rel=canonical' link element in the HTML head of the page.
• Using canonical URLs can help avoid penalties from search engines for duplicate content.