A canonical tag, also known as a “rel=canonical” tag, is an HTML element used in search engine optimisation (SEO) to indicate the preferred version of a web page when multiple pages have similar or identical content. The tag helps to prevent duplicate content issues, which can arise when different URLs display the same information. By specifying a canonical URL, you are able to signal to search engines which version you wish to be indexed and ranked.
Although the tag can be used to prevent duplicate content issues, the primary purpose of implementing a canonical tag is to consolidate link equity and ensure that search engines attribute authority to the chosen page rather than spreading it across duplicates. For instance, if an e-commerce site has product pages accessible via various parameters or filters, using a canonical tag can direct search engines to consider only one version as authoritative.
To implement a canonical tag, you will need insert the following code snippet within the head section of the HTML:
This line informs search engines that “https://www.example.com/preferred-url/” is the original source for this content.
