Canonical URL
A canonical URL is the preferred version of a web page that search engines recognize as the authoritative source to index.
Description
In digital marketing, a canonical URL is crucial for SEO as it helps search engines understand which version of a web page to prioritize in search results. This is important when there are multiple URLs that display similar or identical content. By setting a canonical URL, you inform search engines about the primary version of the page. This can prevent duplicate content issues, improve search rankings, and consolidate link equity. Essentially, a canonical URL acts as a guide to ensure that search engines drive traffic to the correct, intended page, thereby optimizing your site’s visibility and effectiveness.
Examples
- An e-commerce site may have multiple URLs for the same product due to filters or sorting options. For instance, URLs like
www.shop.com/product?color=redandwww.shop.com/product?size=largecan be consolidated under a canonical URL such aswww.shop.com/product. - A blog platform might generate different URLs for the same article depending on the tags or categories applied. For example,
www.blog.com/article?tag=seoandwww.blog.com/article?category=marketingcan point to a single canonical URL likewww.blog.com/article.
Additional Information
- Canonical tags are added in the HTML head section of a web page using the
<link rel="canonical" href="URL">tag. - Using canonical URLs helps with better resource allocation and indexing by search engines, ultimately improving website performance.