Canonical Tag
What does Canonical Tag mean?
A canonical tag is an HTML element (<link rel="canonical" href="URL">) placed in the <head> of a webpage to indicate the preferred version of that page. It tells search engines which URL to treat as the authoritative version when multiple pages have similar or identical content. This prevents duplicate content penalties and ensures ranking signals are directed to the correct URL.
Canonical tags are crucial for e-commerce filters, blog archives, and multilingual or multi-URL versions of the same page.
Example
“Our product variations had different URLs, so we used a canonical tag to point them all to the main product page.”
What are ways to use a Canonical Tag in your business?
Use canonical tags when you have duplicate or near-duplicate content, such as similar product pages, tracking URLs, or content syndication. Always point the tag to the primary version of the page you want to rank. Review your tags during SEO audits to avoid conflicting or missing canonicals, especially on large websites.
Tools like Yoast, Semrush, and Screaming Frog can help identify and manage canonicalization issues.
Pro Tip
Avoid self-referencing canonical errors - each canonical tag should correctly point to the clean, preferred URL of that page, not a variant with tracking codes or session IDs.
Related Terms
Duplicate Content, URL Parameters, Indexing, SEO Audit, Meta Tags, Crawlability
