Yes! Rel=”Canonical” sounds like something strange. Huh! This is an essential SEO element to normalize multiple URLs. You can visit a specif...

Yes! Rel=”Canonical”sounds like something strange. Huh! This is an essential SEO element to normalize multiple URLs. You can visit a specific post from different URLs and domains entirely. Take a closer look at the below URLs, All links pointing to the same article with same content, but in real they have different paths (URLs)

http://example.com/SEO
https://example.com/SEO
http://www.example.com/SEO

In case of Blog Post that assigned to a specific Label you can visit the post by using different URLs like below.

http://example.com/SEO/Post-Title
https://example.com/SEO/Post-Title
http://www.example.com/SEO/Post-Title

This means for single Blog post we have multiple URLs. As a result search engine will index 3 URLs for single post; this is very bad for your site SEO. But if you use rel=”Canonical” tag then you can solve this issue. rel=”Canonical” is a function that allows you to set up a preferred URL for a specific webpage.

What is rel=”Canonical” tag?

“rel=Canonical” tag is a page level meta tag, generally place in the HTML header of a webpage for normalizing multiple URLs. As a result when search robots visit your site then it tells to search engines which URL is the canonical version of the page being display. The main purpose of using rel=”Canonical” to keep duplicate content out of the search engine index while combining your page’s strength into one “Canonical” page.

The “rel=Canonical” element also known as “Canonical Link” and it helps the webmasters to specifying the canonical or preferred version of a webpage. As a result it is able to prevent duplicate content issue from your website.

Why to use rel=”Canonical”?

This is absolutely true that correct use of SEO ensure proper website optimization. But if something becomes wrong then it can be a disaster.

#1: Search Engine Support is Blotchy

Search engine love specific and spotty. If you can specify your web page URL by canonical tag then search engine can pick the right URL, but Google supports canonical tag on both single and across multiple domains. Bing search engine considers the canonical tag as indication, nothing else. So try to use rel=”Canonical”properly thus you can blotch the URL.

#2: Canonical tag for fixing Duplicate content

If you don’t use any rel=”Canonical” tag then search robot will detect multiple URLs for single post. But search robot will think you can multiple contents in your website. So if you use Canonical tag it will stop detecting duplicate content from your website.

#3: Consolidating link signals for preferred URL.

rel=”Canonical” helps search engine to consolidate the information for the individual URLs on a single and preferred URL. As a result, no matter how many URLs have to view your Blog Post search engine will get consolidate with links to preferred one. As a result search engine will avoid duplicate or similar content.

#4: To get accurate Analytics report for a single product/topic.

If you are using Analytics tools for tracking the product performance then it is not possible for multiple URLs on single product or Post. So for the variety of URLs it’s very difficult to get consolidated metrics for a specific piece of content. rel=”Canonical” tag helps the search engine to detect preferred URL and your Analytics tool will provide accurate tracking metrics.

#5: Determine what URL you want to show.

It is possible to display preferred URL through rel=”Canonical” tag. So you can determine what URL to show your audience and what are not. You can prefer people to reach your post page via

https://example.com/SEO/Post-Title/URL rather than below URL. https://example.com/SEO/Post-Title?gclid=ABCD

#6: Addressing syndicated content.

Ranking is necessary for grow your Website properly. But if you syndicate your content for multiple domains then you should use rel=”Canonical” tag to consolidate page ranking to your preferred URL.

How you can use canonical URLs?

We can use rel=”Canonical” to improve link and ranking signals for our Blog content. But we can implement it different ways. If you wish to use it for a preferred URL you can simple do it like below:

<head> <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://example.com/SEO/Post-Title/” /> </head>

The above system is manual. If you are using WordPress then SEO plugin is the solution. And almost all SEO plugins have rel=”Canonical” feature.

In case of Google Blogger site we can easily use rel=”Canonical” tag for all WebPages at once. Just follow the below steps-

Step #1: Go to “https://www.blogger.com” and Sign in to your account

Step #2: From “Blogger Dashboard” click on ->Template ->Edit HTML

Step #3: And locate the <head> section in your Blogger template

Step #4: Finally copy following line of markup and paste it below <head>

<link expr:href='data:blog.url' rel='canonical'/>

Step #5: After that hit the “Save template” button

Now when search robot visit your Blog then It will index only preferred URL only. To check rel=”Canonical” in your Blog just visit any post page and view the page source by pressing CTRL+U or by right click. You will see the canonical URL like below. This means you have canonicalized your Blog post URL properly.

<link href='https://example.com/SEO/Post-Title/' rel='canonical'/>

So it’s all about link canonicalization to normalizing multiple URLs. I hope you have understood the importance of using it and able to apply in your website.