Today, we are going to talk about a term that is crucial for your blog’s SEO – the Canonical Tag.

What is a Canonical Tag?

A canonical tag, also known as rel=canonical, is a piece of HTML code that helps search engines identify the main version of a page when there are multiple pages with identical or very similar content.

In simpler terms, it’s a way to tell search engines, “Hey, this is the main version of this page that I want you to index and show in the search results.”

For example, the canonical tag for your main blog page might look like this:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://yourblog.com/main-page/" />

Why Are Canonical Tags Important?

  1. Avoid Duplicate Content: Search engines, like Google, don’t like duplicate content. It confuses them, and they might end up indexing and ranking the wrong version of your page. Canonical tags help you specify which version of the page you want to be considered as the main one.
  2. Consolidate Link Equity: If there are multiple versions of a page, the backlinks to those pages will be divided among them. By using a canonical tag, you consolidate the link equity to the main page, which can help improve its ranking.
  3. Improve Crawling Efficiency: Search engines have a crawl budget, which is the number of pages they will crawl on your site in a given time. By using canonical tags, you can help search engines to not waste their crawl budget on duplicate pages.

Best Practices for Using Canonical Tags

  1. Use Absolute URLs: Always use the absolute URL in the canonical tag, not the relative URL. For example, use https://yourblog.com/main-page/ instead of /main-page/.
  2. Self-Canonicalize: Even if a page doesn’t have any duplicates, it’s still a good practice to include a self-referencing canonical tag. This helps to avoid any confusion for search engines.
  3. Be Consistent: Make sure that the URL used in the canonical tag is consistent across the site. For example, if your site uses https, make sure that the canonical tag also uses https.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  1. Canonical Chains: A canonical chain occurs when Page A references Page B as the canonical, and Page B references Page C as the canonical. Always point the canonical tag directly to the main version of the page.
  2. Multiple Canonical Tags: There should only be one canonical tag on a page. If there are multiple canonical tags, search engines might ignore them.
  3. Non-Similar Content: Don’t use the canonical tag on pages with completely different content. It should only be used on pages with identical or very similar content.

Conclusion

Canonical tags are an essential tool for bloggers to manage duplicate content, consolidate link equity, and improve crawling efficiency. By using them correctly, you can help search engines understand your content better and improve your blog’s SEO.