![\"sample](\"http:\/\/sh107.global.temp.domains\/~rinoblas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/sample-code-for-canonical-tag.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhy do some websites need to have duplicate content?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You might not know your site has duplicate content even if you don\u2019t create one. This will causes canonical issue which is bad in terms of seo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are some points on how your site might have created duplicate content without your knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- The number one reason is having the web pages compatible with different devices. After mobile friendly became one of the ranking factors most of the website owner\u2019s are focusing on building websites which can be supportable to different devices which leads to creating different urls.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Search engine crawlers crawl the url not the webpages. The crawler considers the dynamic url different from static url even though they are the same web page. This condition is known as parameterized url which generally appears in ecommerce sites.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- If you are using certain cms like wordpress then there is a chance that wordpress automatically creates copies of the same post as tags.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Due to some issue the server might serve the same piece of content for different variants. Like https\/http or www\/non-www.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Content syndication is one of the methods that most site owners do to optimize the off page seo. But sometimes it also results in duplicate content issues.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Most of the news\/media pages use AMP to make it mobile friendly but it results in a canonical issue.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Why should one use a canonical tag?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Do you want to buy the same book twice? Absolutely not, so the search engine crawler doesn’t want to crawl the same page more than once. If you use the canonical tag it will save the crawl budget of search engine spider and index other important pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This also helps the crawler to understand which page you want to show to the user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Best practices for canonical tag<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
While tacking with duplicate pages you might be facing some difficulties but you can use these steps as a reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Use self referential canonical tag<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Self referring means to itself i.e. canonical tag would point to itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Example if a website has url <\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/domainname.com\/somepage\/ then its self referential canonical tag will be<\/p>\n\n\n\n
rel=\u201dcanonical\u201d href=\u201dhttps:\/\/domainname.com\/somepage\/\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Use absolute url instead of relative url<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
It is recommended to use absolute url (with domain name) instead of relative url (which has only slug).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Use canonical tag while paginating<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Use rel=\u201dnext page\u201d and rel=\u201d previous page\u201d, if it is a paginating website which most ecommerce websites are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Use canonical tag on home page<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Most of the website owners will refer to your home page which might cause duplicate come page issues. The best way to tackle that is to put a canonical tag on the home page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Best example of self referential canonical tag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"self](\"http:\/\/sh107.global.temp.domains\/~rinoblas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/self-referential-canonical-tag.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCommon mistakes while using the canonical tag<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Using robots.txt<\/a> to block the url<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Robots.txt is a guide which tells crawlers which url to crawl and which one to not. Thus it will prevent the transfer of link juice from non-canonical to canonical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is canonical tag and 301 redirect is the same<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Most people get confused about the canonical tag and 301 redirect. There is a huge difference between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Canonical tag will tell the search engine \u201cA\u2019 page is a duplicate of \u2018B\u2019. But will not stop users from accessing both pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if you are looking to do permanent redirection then use 301. Here when a user enters the url \u2018A\u2019 it will automatically redirect to url \u2018B\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using 404 status for canonical url<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
If you are using 404 status to a non canonical page then you aren’t able to pass the link juice to the canonical page. It will act like noindex tag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not using canonical tag in hreflang<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Hreflang is a language used to say crawler to target this specific area, location or geography. Then you should use the same hreflang for use canonical pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using canonical tag multiple times<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Implementing rel=canonical multiple times will make the search engine crawler to ignore. It happens if you are using the cms like wordpress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using canonical tag in the body section<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Canonical tag is meant to be used in the header section of the html code. If used in other sections like footer or body then it can easily be ignored by search engine crawlers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to check canonical issue<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The best method is to check manually by observing the source code of the website. Simply type ctrl+u and find rel=\u201dcanonical\u201d in the search bar if present its good to go if not implement one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Most of the news\/media pages use AMP to make it mobile friendly but it results in a canonical issue.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Content syndication is one of the methods that most site owners do to optimize the off page seo. But sometimes it also results in duplicate content issues.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Due to some issue the server might serve the same piece of content for different variants. Like https\/http or www\/non-www.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- If you are using certain cms like wordpress then there is a chance that wordpress automatically creates copies of the same post as tags.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Search engine crawlers crawl the url not the webpages. The crawler considers the dynamic url different from static url even though they are the same web page. This condition is known as parameterized url which generally appears in ecommerce sites.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"Screaming](\"http:\/\/sh107.global.temp.domains\/~rinoblas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/screaming-frog-for-canonical-issue-detection-1024x775.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n