Everything you need to know about the Rel=Canonical tag!
Correct use of the Rel=Canonical tag is very important for a website, and we will teach you how to use it in principle.
Imagine that in an online store, products are categorized on different pages based on criteria such as alphabetically, cheapest, most expensive, brand name, etc., but the most significant category is the best-selling products that appear in the search results.
However, we are faced with pages that are very similar in content, but have different addresses, and in normal cases, search engines may have a little trouble recognizing our desired page and index another address as the home page. What solution do you have in mind in times like these?
The best way is to use the Canonical tag to show the priority of one of the addresses, so that the other addresses are removed from the search results and only the page with the best-selling category is indexed in the results list.
The canonical tag is a piece of HTML code used to identify the original version of a page among duplicate pages.
In this article from the Keyupseo blog SEO section, we will try to explain to you how to use the canonical tag better.
What is the Canonical Tag?
The canonical tag (rel=“canonical”) is a piece of HTML code that tells Google which page is the original version of a duplicate page when placed on a page.
The canonical tag is a way to help Google distinguish the best content from content that is very similar to each other. Simply put, when the Canonical tag (Rel=Canonical) is placed on a page, Google gives more importance to the address where this tag is entered and will certainly index that page in search results.
Why should we use the canonical tag?
You may be asking yourself why a webmaster would create duplicate pages on their website. And as a result, you might think that duplicate and copied content does not seem like such a big deal and can be prevented with a little care in content production, but in fact, duplicate content is one of the problems that most website administrators struggle with.
Our misconception about duplicate content comes from our view of website pages as a visual concept. However, search engines do not recognize pages by concepts, but by a separate URL. For example, imagine that search engines can access your website's home page with these addresses:
- https://www.example.com/index.php
- https://www.example.com
- https://example.com
- https://example.com/index.php
- https://example.com/index.php?refer=twitter
To you as a human, all of these URLs represent a page with the same concept, but to search engine crawlers, each of these addresses is a unique page, separate from the others. As a result, in this simple example, we have 5 duplicate pages of the website's home page, but in reality, this is only part of the issues you may encounter.
If the amount of duplicate pages on a website is excessive, there is a possibility of some SEO problems, and it will hurt the site's ranking. However, today's modern content management systems automatically add the Rel=Canonical tag to pages with the same content, so that you can easily have thousands of duplicate pages on your website.
How to use the Canonical tag
The canonical tag should be placed in the Head section of the page, and Google does not pay attention to tags that are in the body of the code. This is also a bit related to security issues because some websites have provided the ability to edit the code in the body of the site for users.
Consequently, if the canonical tag also works in the body of the site, some people can easily hit the website by placing it. In general, to canonicalize pages, the following code can be used:
</ "link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/">
Thus, to use the canonical tag, you must first enter the link of the page. Then, you must enter the rel="canonical" code and finally, after entering the href, enter the new page address.
Important points when using the canonical tag
When using the Canonical tag, it is better to pay attention to the following points:
The canonical tag can be self-referential
In fact, it is not bad to use the Canonical tag on the page that is preferable to you; in other words, if 3 pages of the website have duplicate content and one of these pages is also known as the home page, it is good to use the Canonical tag on this page as well and enter the address of the desired page in it.
Use the Canonical tag on the home page of the website
Given that duplicate content on the home page is one of the common problems of websites, and internet users may be redirected to the home page of your website with different addresses, it is better to use this tag to avoid duplicate content and unforeseen problems such as lowering the page rank.
Avoid sending mixed and ambiguous signals
Search engines may not consider Canonical tags containing ambiguous signals. In simpler terms, avoid using this tag on page A to point to page B, i.e., (A ---> B), while on page B ,you have also pointed to page A with this tag (B ---> A).
Also, avoid using the canonical tag on page A to point to page B and redirect page B to address A. In both cases, an ambiguous signal is sent to search engines, and they do not consider the canonical tag at all because they do not recognize the main page. Also, do not use this tag in a chain (A –> B, B –> C, C –> D). Despite such activities, Google crawlers may make an error, and thus you will lose your site's position in the results and be penalized for reducing SEO.
Use the Canonical tag for pages with relatively similar content
Many of you probably limit the use of the Canonical tag to pages with completely identical content, but it is better to use this tag for pages with relatively similar content, such as product category pages of online stores. These pages are very similar in terms of product types, descriptions, and layout. Remember that non-canonical versions may not be indexed in search results, and on the other hand, if the pages are very different from each other, search engines will probably not consider the Canonical tag.
You can also link to external pages using the Canonical tag
You may manage multiple websites at the same time and publish content repeatedly (or with slight changes to it). In these cases, you can use the Canonical tag to control all websites and focus the ranking power on just one site. However, remember that canonicalization prevents non-canonical websites from ranking. As a result, before using this tag, first make sure that its functionality is useful for your business.
Of course, my suggestion to you is to use a guest post instead and link to the page in question by publishing content on your other sites.
As mentioned earlier, when the content of the pages is very different from each other, search engines like Google are likely to ignore the Canonical tag and index the non-canonical pages in the search results. We should thank Google for such a feature because if the link placed in this tag is wrong or the site does not exist at all (error 404), Google will easily recognize this and ignore the tag and the link placed in it.
You should know that you can use multiple Canonical tags on a page. However, keep in mind that our goal in using this tag is to show the highest value content and pages with similar content!
Canonical Tag and Social Media!
Two social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, are well-suited to the canonical tag. These two social networking platforms are such that if you share a URL that points to another address in the form of a Canonical link on Facebook, Facebook will share the details and information from the canonical address.
Setting up the Canonical Tag in the Yoast Plugin
If you use the Yoast plugin in your WordPress content management system, you can easily implement the canonical tag for different pages through this tool. Just go to the Advanced section of the Yoast plugin and enter an address other than the current page URL in the Canonical URL section.
Which is more suitable, the canonical tag or the 301 redirect?
You may have been asked whether the canonical tag or the 301 redirect is more suitable for URL redirection.
Given that the Canonical tag can also be used to point to external addresses, this tag seems to be similar to a 301 redirect. Simply put, when you have decided to change the domain of your website, but the website server does not provide you with the ability to redirect. To do this, you can indicate the domain transfer to search engine crawlers by placing the Canonical tag on the pages.
However, an important question always arises in this regard. Can the Canonical tag also convey the rank and authority of pages, like a 301 redirect?
Keep in mind that these two solutions show completely different results to search engine crawlers and users. When you 301 redirect page A to page B, in addition to search engines, internet users are also automatically redirected to page B and never see page A.
However, if you use the Canonical tag to point page A to page B, only search engines will notice that page B is canonical, but internet users can see both URLs. As a result, it seems that this tag does not have the necessary functionality to completely redirect pages and transfer their previous rank and authority!
If you are going to redirect your page or website, do not do it using the Meta Refresh Tag.
We have explained in detail about the Disadvantages of Reloading Pages via the Meta Refresh Tag in the article Meta Refresh Tag.
Rel=Canonical is a powerful tool!
Rel=Canonical is a powerful tool for optimizing your website's SEO, but like any other powerful tool, you must use it wisely; otherwise, this powerful tool will cause SEO problems.
It is not difficult to use the canonical tag, you just need to know how to use it correctly. Of course, using this trick on large websites is very important and can have a profound impact on the website's SEO. I hope this article has been able to explain how the Rel=Canonical tag works, along with its advantages and disadvantages.
Release date : 27 April, 2025
