Declaring Your Website Canonical URLs Matters for SEO
Article 107 From the Complete Do It Yourself SEO Checklist For Small Business
Canonical URLs are a way to tell search engines which version of a page on your website is the “official” or primary one. This is especially important if your website has multiple URLs that display the same or very similar content. For example, www.yourbusiness.com/product and yourbusiness.com/product may lead to the same page, but search engines might see them as duplicates. Declaring a canonical URL helps consolidate these duplicates, ensuring all SEO value and ranking power are assigned to the primary version.
When you don’t use canonical URLs, search engines can become confused about which page to prioritize, potentially splitting your rankings and making it harder for your content to perform well. Worse, search engines might decide on their own which version to rank, and it might not be the one you prefer. Declaring canonical URLs avoids these problems, improves your SEO, and ensures a consistent experience for your visitors.
How to Declare Canonical URLs
To declare a canonical URL, add a simple piece of code to the <head> section of your webpage. Here’s an example:
html: <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.yourbusiness.com/product” />
This tells search engines that https://www.yourbusiness.com/product is the official URL for the page. If you use a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, tools like Yoast SEO or Rank Math can automate this process for you. Simply set the canonical URL in the plugin’s settings, and it will handle the rest.
For more advanced setups, such as e-commerce websites with many similar pages (e.g., products with different filters), canonical URLs are even more critical. If you’re unsure about implementation, consult your website developer or refer to Google’s canonicalization guide.
By declaring canonical URLs, you protect your SEO efforts, avoid duplicate content issues, and give search engines clear instructions on how to index your site. It’s a small but vital step in building a strong and search-friendly website.
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