What Is Rel=Canonical and How to Implement It

There are certain aspects you must consider for your website in order to make it fully functional and ready to thrive in the SERPs (search engine results pages). And the rel=canonical function is among the features that you must enable and implement on your web page(s).

What Is Rel=Canonical?

Basically, rel=canonical is a function that allows you to set up a preferred URL for a specific page and even for all pages on your website, which can be accessed through multiple URLs. An example would be if, let’s say, you post an article on your blog or update a page/resource center and place it in many categories. This means you have different URLs pointing to the same page or article. It might look like this:

o   http://blog.example.com/tablets/best-cheap-tablet/

o   http://blog.example.com/android/best-cheap-tablet/

o   http://blog.example.com/gadgets/best-cheap-tablet/

Take a close look at the example above. As it shows, all the above links point to the same article/resource with the same content, although they are different paths (URLs).

Setting Up a Preferred URL

Sometimes, you would want to point out to a preferred URL. If you want to setup a specific URL, you need to add a tag to thesection of the specific page(s) with the attribute rel=”canonical”. You can do it like this:

Rel Canonical Example

Or opt for a SEO plugin that helps you in that direction. For e.g., WP SEO by Yoast will point to a specific Rel=Canonical option in the bottom of your post in WordPress Editor. Ideally, we suggest having a preferred canonical URL displayed.

What Is Rel=Canonical and How to Implement It

Image source: Blog Spot – Rel=caninical + attribute

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Sergiu Draganus
CEO - GeoRanker

Sergiu Draganus is an Entrepreneur, CEO & Co-Funder of GeoRanker and Conference Speaker - open to approach any new type of analysis and suggestions related to Local SEO.

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