Ref = Canonical
-
Does it make sense to use the Canonical statement on pages on your web site that already have the correct URL. Or, should I ask, "Does it do any harm?"
-
Thanks for the speedy response Streamline,
We have just rewritten our web site using a directory structure, rather than having all of the HTML pages in the root folder, and used rel=canonical on all pages, because we were/are really worried about our (fairly good) rankings being negatively impacted.
We have also used rel=canonical in the redirect pages, as we believed that this was an appropriate use of of the 'tag.'
PS
(Sorry about the earlier 'Ref' typo)
-
It doesn't do any harm and in fact, I would recommend using canonical tags just in case some people access your site via a link that has parameters in the URL, such as www.yoursite.com/?utm_campaign=twitter, etc. The canonical tag will ensure that the search engines are always aware about indexing the correct URL.
Also, it's important to note that the proper syntax is rel="canonical" and not ref="canonical".
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
-
NoIndex or Rel=Canonical Pagination
Hello, I had a question about noindex and Rel=Canonical on category page pagination. On my site, the category page the meta="robots" has "Index,Follow" tags and the rel="canonical" is the main category page, but when a user sorts the page the meta="robots" changes to "NoIndex, Follow." My question is should the sorted page be name="robots" content="INDEX,FOLLOW" /> since the rel="canonical" is pointing to the main page?? Or does it matter that it is NoIndex?? Any thoughts on this topic would be awesome. Thanks. Main Category Page
On-Page Optimization | | chuck-layton
https://www.site.com/category/
name="robots" content="INDEX,FOLLOW" />
rel="canonical" href="https://www.site.com/category/"/> Name Sorted Page
https://www.site.com/category/?dir=asc&order=name
name="robots" content="NOINDEX, FOLLOW" />
rel="canonical" href="https://www.site.com/category/">0 -
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 -
Will canonical tag on non-copy content harm my site?
Days ago I added rel=canonical tags on my site. For the post pages, I add canonical tag on both post page (www.exmample.com/post.html) and comment page (www.exmample.com/post-sms.html), all the canonical tags are pointing to post page, but in fact there are only comments on the comment page. For product pages, I add the canonical tags on both product info page, download page, and order page, all of them are pointing to the info page, while in fact they are displaying different content. I no-indexed the comment page, download page, and order page for a long time. After I added the canonical tags, the traffics dropped (not hugely but slowly and steadily). Are my actions harming my site? Is this a normal flux after adding codes to the entire site, or it's the bad outcome for wrong SEO actions? PS: I can't change the site structure, so it's not possible to combine post and comment pages into one, so do the product pages. Thank you guys
On-Page Optimization | | JonnyGreenwood0 -
Appropriate Use of Rel Canonical
I have encountered problems regarding rel canonical. When I ran On-Page Report Card it says **Error: ** Appropriate Use of Rel Canonical Canonical URL: "http://www.sourcedental.createmyid.net/teeth-whitening/" Explanation: If the canonical tag is pointing to a different URL, engines will not count this page as the reference resource and thus, it won't have an opportunity to rank. Make sure you're targeting the right page (if this isn't it, you can reset the target above) and then change the canonical tag to reference that URL. Recommendation We check to make sure that IF you use canonical URL tags, it points to the right page. If the canonical tag points to a different URL, engines will not count this page as the reference resource and thus, it won't have an opportunity to rank. If you've not made this page the rel=canonical target, change the reference to this URL. NOTE: For pages not employing canonical URL tags, this factor does not apply." I just don't know how to fix this. I am using Wordpress SEO by Yoast but I haven't change any settings regarding rel canonical. Can anyone help me with this? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | projectassistant0 -
Canonical URL tags help I am not sure what this is
I am trying to get an A grade on my webpage and this is one of the critical steps canonical URL tags I cant find much information as to what this even is never mind fixing it. Thanks I am a total newbe at this any advice is appreciated
On-Page Optimization | | gemfirez0 -
Do I need canonical link on target page?
I've placed in my head tag on duplicate content pages, but do i need to place it on the target page such as http://www.example.com/index.html too?
On-Page Optimization | | CaliB0 -
Canonical links
My website is relatively new, January. We climbed steadily to 6th for our search term then overnight rocketed to 1st. This only lasted a week and have been stuck at 9th ever since. When I use the SEO Moz tools our site should theoretically be top...I only joined today btw. Anyway in Google webmaster tools I noticed it said I had duplicate title tags, when I checked to see what the pages were- it was my home page! Google also seems to have cached two versions of our homepage, the root domain and the Default.aspx page. Now I have fixed this canonical linking issue today (using canonical link tag and 301s) so time will tell but has anyone got any first hand experience of this issue? Was it a big factor? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | SplashBacksNI0 -
Does it matter if a rel = "canonical" element is added to the beginning or the end of a URL?
I am curious to know if adding a rel = "canonical" tag to the end of a link element will affect its purpose?
On-Page Optimization | | Sharecare0