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01.28.10 How Canonical Tags Can Help You Understand SEO  By Patrick HareThe canonical tag (or canonical link) element can go a long way in helping Google understand which pages of your site belong in the search engine results. Thanks to a recent Google update, this tag can also help you specify which site is the preferred source for information which may need to be duplicated in other places. What is a canonical tag? And what does "canonical" mean? In the search engine optimization world, "canonical" refers to the preferred version of the URL that should be considered by search engines. Normally it refers to whether or not you use the www prefix in front of your URL, and how you channel link popularity to your preferred pages while preventing search engine confusion related to duplicate content. A canonical tag, however, is used to define which version of a particular page should be considered as the one a search engine indexes. Normally, a canonical tag looks like: link rel="canonical" href=http://www.example.com/page1.htm (Note that the usual "less than" and "greater than" markup signs should be at each end of the tag.) This tag should get placed in the between the opening and closing "head" sections of your source code. Each canonical URL in the "href=" section should reference the page it is duplicating. If all your tags on interior pages reference the homepage, then your interior pages are likely to vanish from search results. You can also put the canonical tag on the actual canonical page.
Why would you use a canonical tag? Ideally, you want to control the way search engines index your content, and how they apply link popularity between pages. If you have a site that has "printer friendly" pages, then you need to specify which one you want indexed, though you can also use other tricks to do this. If you have multiple product pages in a shopping cart for the same item, you only want to show the one that is the best search engine match. According to a general consensus among search engine optimization consultants, the canonical tag also applies the link popularity (incoming link value) of a duplicate page to the one specified as the original when it is tagged. In rare cases, a canonical tag may help you safeguard against accidental or deliberate site duplication and code theft. If the person copying your code doesn't remove the tag, then your URL is still going to be the source considered as original. If you find that some other domain name is accidentally or deliberately forwarding to your server, a canonical added to your site will prevent potential duplicate content issues. This may also help if a search engine has a hard time choosing between secure and non-secure pages on your site. Comments About the Author: Patrick Hare has been managing online and offline marketing projects since 1999. From 2005 to present, he has been with Scottsdale Arizona's Web.com Search Agency (formerly Submitawebsite). Patrick provides Search Engine Optimization and Marketing advice to in-house customers and Web.com Jacksonville’s web design group. |
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