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How to use a canonical tag to consolidate duplicate content on a website?
So you have a website with duplicate content which is hurting your SEO and don't know how to fix the problem? Welcome! In this blog post, I'll dive into what a canonical tag is and explain how it can be used to consolidate duplicate content on a website. After reading through this post, you will have an in-depth understanding of canonical tags, as well as best practices for implementing them on your site when dealing with duplicate content issues. Let's get started!
Using Canonical Tag to Fix Duplicate Content Issues?
Canonical tag give you a choice to pick one URL as master content. When you have more than one URL using similar content, Search engines will think this is plagiarism. You can use canonical tag to use specific content within and outside your domain without inviting plagiarism.
Using Canonical Tag Within the Domain
Let's assume you have the same content or a part of the content in more than one section of your site. Simply put, the same content is posted on multiple web pages on your site. So, which webpage would the search engines rank?
Surprisingly, this happens more often than you believe. You will mainly see them on e-commerce sites. For instance, smartphones can be available in different colors, RAM, storage, and other specifications. However, the basic description remains the same.
Technically, using the same content on different web pages or domains is plagiarism. That means Google and other search engines will treat it as copied content. However, the truth is it is not copied. That's why canonical redirect is used.
To fix this, you need to use the canonical tag rel=canonical as follows
Step 1 − Select the page
Select the page you want to add the canonical tag
For example, you have two URLs with the same content −
https://www.xyz.com/men/shirts/formal/ https://www.xyz.com/men/shirts/ casual/
Pick any one of the pages to represent your master URL. You should choose a version that you think is the better of the two. For example, the one that has most of the contents.
Alternatively, you can pick one that gets more visitors or has most of the links.
Step 2 − Add the tag
The next step is to add the rel=canonical tag. You need to add the rel=canonical link to the canonical page from the non-canonical link.
To do this, go to your non-canonical page. Then add rel=canonical as a meta tag in your HTML header.
Let's say you pick https://www.xyz.com/men/shirts/formal/"as your canonical URL. This means the other URL, https://www.xyz.com/men/shirts/casual/, will link to the master URL in the <head> section.
Here is an example −
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.xyz.com/shirts/men/" />
Canonical tag are soft redirects. That means they are not actually redirecting the users. When you use canonical tags, it sort of merges the two pages from a search engine standpoint.
Links of both the URLs will now be considered as one by the search engine.
Using Canonical Tag in Cross-domain
You can use one canonical URL used on more than one domain. This allows you to distribute certain content across various sites.
The rel=canonical tag tells search engines that your site contents have identical contents and are distributed in other domains too. It is pretty beneficial for you in your SEO. It allows you to republish your content on various sites to gain organic traffic and domain authority. Besides, it also allows others to share or publish your content on their sites. This further boosts your domain authority and reach.
Using duplicate content across various domains is not always plagiarism. Most sites, brands, and companies do that for smart reasons. Plus, Google completely supports the usage of rel=canonical in such cases.
The rel=canonical is an HTML element that assists webmasters in preventing plagiarism. By specifying the canonical tag in a URL, you tell search engines that the content used in the domain and across the domain is not plagiarized. Besides, using the rel=canonical element can also improve your SEO performance and search engine rankings.
Google's webmasters recommend you choose a preferred domain as master content. This must be done before you start working on managing content duplication or consolidating duplicate URLs within your website. It should also be done before handling cross-site duplicate content.
After selecting a master domain, you must enable crawling using 301 redirects wherever possible.
Note − Google generally recommends using 301 redirects for site owners. This is because a 301 redirect clearly states users and search engines when they are sent to another link. Experts believe you should do redirects unless there is a technical reason.
For example, it is difficult to set up redirects if the server doesn't support them.
Best Practices for Cross-Domain Rel=Canonical Best Practices
For using cross-domain rel=canonical, you need to ensure the following −
The page content matches the contents of the other sites. This should include text, images, and embedded videos.
The headlines shouldn't necessarily match. However, it could be helpful.
The links within the content of the master content should also match. However, it's not mandatory.
You should plan carefully which domain to choose as the master. The chosen domain will receive all the SEO and search engine benefits.
If someone desires to re-post your content on their domain, you should use their re=canonical and backlink. In short, you want the link from their domain to your website.
Allowing others to post your content and getting more re=canonical in return is a smart way to operate online.
Things to Consider or Avoid While Using Canonical Tag
Make sure you have a deep understanding of SEO and canonicalization. This is important as a wrong move can significantly affect your website's search rankings.
Here are some tips you can utilize to stay away from negative implications −
Use 301 Redirects Whenever You Can
301 redirect is a directive to search engines, while canonicals are indicative. Meaning 301 redirects direct the search engine to a different page. However, with canonicals, the search engine might choose to ignore them.
Generally, SEO experts recommend 301 redirects over canonicalization.
However, in certain cases, you need to use canonical tag.
For example, if you have products in multiple categories. If you sell a product in multiple categories on your site, you must use a canonical URL linking all pages to it.
Avoid Using robots.txt
Robot.txt tells google what page to crawl and what to skip. However, this could be problematic for duplicate content.
By stopping google from crawling, you are stopping Googlebot from indexing the page completely. You will miss out on engagements, content signals, backlinks, and other SEO gains.
So don't block google from crawling your page just because of duplicate content. Instead, set up proper canonical URLs to rectify the issue.
Don't Delete Non-canonical Versions Blindly
Sometimes website owners blindly purge duplicate content. This might be a problem if that content is linked to other pages. For example, someone might have saved it for the future. This could mean you will lose a visitor and ruin the user experience. Instead, you a 301 redirect to send the user to the new and updated content.
End Thoughts
After reading this blog post, you now know how to use the canonical tag to consolidate duplicate content on your website. Utilizing the canonical tag is an excellent way to improve SEO and keep a tidy website, while allowing search engines to better crawl your website and direct your audience to the content that is most important for them. Just be sure to double check and make sure the tags you create are actually being used as intended.
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