What does Canonical mean?
-
Hi,
I was wondering what is meant by canonical? I ran a test on my site and in the notices, SEOMOZ came back with a total of 90 canonicals. As far as I can tell, it refers to the preferred page (not really sure what that means though). I thought initially it was talking about duplicate content, but all the pages are totally different. There is no duplicate content on any of he pages that it lists. So I'm not sure how to fix this.
Thanks for the help.
Don
-
Thanks Guys,
Really appreciate your input.
Don
-
Just as Broadbeach Media said is the canonical tag to indicate pages with similar content. Big advantage is that you can tell Google which one is the important one and needs to be indexed.
More detailled info you can find here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394
-
Good day ge0173400,
Basically canonical was created to tell Google that if you 2 or more pages that have the same content, which page with that content you want Google to focus on.
For example you have 3 pages regarding gold fish. All 3 pages have nearly the exact same content except the species of gold fish. All of a sudden you have duplicate content now. It is then up to you to decide which page you would like to get the most value (let's say page 1). You then put a canonical link on pages 2 & 3 pointing to page 1. This means that when Google crawls pages 2 & 3 it will find out that it should focus on page 1.
If the above is confusing, definitely have a look at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/canonical-url-tag-the-most-important-advancement-in-seo-practices-since-sitemaps It does a great (and better) job of explaining canonical.
Best of luck.
-
Straight from the horses mouth:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Will adding canonical affect traffic to the non canonical page?
We have three URLs that have the same content but all three are getting traffic.
On-Page Optimization | | NanditaKraman1 -
One more question about rel=canonical
I'm still trying to wrap my head around rel=canonical and its importance. Thanks to the community, I've been able to understand most of it. Still, I have a couple of very specific questions: I share certain blog posts on the Huffington Post. Here's an example: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/cedric-lizotte/munich-travel-guide_b_13438956.html - Of course I post these on my blog as well. Here: http://www.continentscondiments.com/things-munich-classics/ - Obviously the HuffPo has a huge DA, and I'll never match it. However the original post is mine, on my blog, and not on the HuffPo. They wont - obviously - add a rel=canonical just for me and for the sake of it, they have a million other things to do. QUESTION: Should I add a rel=canonical to my own site pointing to the post on the HuffPost? What would be the advantage? Should I just leave this alone? I share blog posts on Go4TravelBlog too. Example: http://www.go4travelblog.com/dallmayr-restaurant-munich/ - but, once again, the original post is on one of my blogs. In this case, it's on another blog of mine: http://www.thefinediningblog.com/dallmayr-restaurant-in-munich/ QUESTION: Well it's pretty much the same! Should I beg Go4TravelBlog to add a rel=canonical pointing to mine? If they refuse, what do I do? Would it be better to add a rel=canonical from my site to theirs, or do I fight it out and have a rel=canonical pointing to my own post? Why? Thanks a million for your help!
On-Page Optimization | | cedriklizotte0 -
2 Canonical questions
QUESTION 1
On-Page Optimization | | Marketing_Today
I'm working on a site where a canonical link is implemented as That's not the normal format that I am used to, as I would have written it as Is that a problem? QUESTION 2
Why do so many sites these days have a sitewide canonical tag which refers to itself as the canonical?
For example: http://www.site.co.uk/page has a canonical of0 -
Should i make all of my pages with canonical tag
Hi, Im using thesis Wordpress theme, and their default option is "Add canonical <acronym title="Uniform Resource Locator">URL</acronym>s to your site" im just wandering if i should keep that box checked and apply canonical <acronym title="Uniform Resource Locator">URL</acronym>s to all of my pages? Thank You
On-Page Optimization | | Vmezoz0 -
Canonical issue
Hi again, my SEOMOZ software has found some "notices" related to certain pages regarding canonical tag. Here are some examples: El primer campamento de kitesurf en tarifa, somos tks!
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/
1 0
El primer campamento de kitesurf en tarifa, somos tks!
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/?attachment_id=
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/
1 0
Aviso Legal y Política de Privacidad
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/aviso-legal-y-politica-de-privacidad/
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/aviso-legal-y-politica-de-privacidad/
1 0
campamento de kitesurf tarifa en un complejo natural con tks!
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/campamento-kitesurf/
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/campamento-kitesurf/
1 0
campamentos bilingues para niños y jóvenes en tarifa, tsk!
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/campamentos-bilingues-para-ninos/
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/campamentos-bilingues-para-ninos/
1 0
Condiciones Generales
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/condiciones-generales/
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/condiciones-generales/
1 0
Contacto
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/contacto/
http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/contacto/
1 0 Can anyone tell me what does mean? I guess it has to do with the impact of some kind of plugin since I haven't done anything. Thanks in advanced.0 -
Events in Wordpress Creating Duplicate Content Canonical Issues
Hi, I have a site which uses Event Manager Pro within Wordpress to create Events (as custom post types on my blog. I use it to advertise cookery classes. In a given month I might run one type of class 4 times. The event page I have made for each class is the same and I duplicate it 4 times and just change the dates to promote it. The problem is with over 10 different classes, which are then duplicated up to 4 times each per month. I get loads of duplicate content errors. How can I fix this without redirecting people away from the correct page for the date they are interested in? Is it best just to use a no follow for ALL events and rely on the other parts of my site for SEO? Thanks, T23
On-Page Optimization | | tekton230 -
What do these ticks mean and how do i achieve them?
How, What get you ticks on these areas? Some of my sites have high links than other sites but i still done have the tick? Regards Chris seomozpro.gif
On-Page Optimization | | chrisleonard0 -
"On Page" report says 2 rel canonical urls-how do I fix that?
I am reviewing my On Page scores and I'm not getting a perfect score bk of this notice: No More Than One Canonical URL Tag Moderate fix <dl> <dt>Number of Canonical tags</dt> <dd>2</dd> <dt>Explanation</dt> <dd>The canonical URL tag is meant to be employed only a single time on an individual URL (much like the title element or meta description). To ensure the search engines properly parse the canonical source, employ only a single version of this tag.</dd> <dt>Recommendation</dt> <dd>Remove all but a single canonical URL tag</dd> <dd>HOW do I fix that?</dd> <dd>I am using Platinum seo plugin which I have checked "Use canonical urls" and the page in question is</dd> <dd>http://adderalldosage.net/general-adderall-dosage/</dd> </dl>
On-Page Optimization | | ccare7230