When the same content is reachable at several addresses, a canonical tag tells search engines which one to index.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://shop.demo.pepploweb.com/purifiers">When to use one
- Product pages reachable through several categories.
- Addresses with tracking or sorting parameters.
- Printer-friendly or AMP versions.
- Every normal page, pointing to itself (a self-referencing canonical).
Common mistakes
- Pointing every page to the home page.
- Canonical pointing to a page that redirects or returns 404.
- A canonical to one URL while internal links all point to another.
Canonical tags are hints
Search engines treat canonical tags as strong suggestions, not commands. If your internal links, sitemap and redirects all point to a different address, they may choose that one instead. Keep all signals consistent: the canonical address should be the one you link to, list in the sitemap and redirect to.
Cross-domain canonicals
If you publish the same article on a partner's site, the partner can add a canonical tag pointing to your original. This tells search engines which version came first.
Canonical vs redirect vs noindex
- Redirect when the old address should not be visited at all.
- Canonical when both addresses need to work for visitors, but one should be indexed.
- Noindex when a page should be usable but never appear in search.
Check your templates
A broken template can output the same canonical on every page, which can remove most of a site from search. Spot-check a few pages after every template change.
Check it
The canonical tag checker shows the canonical of any page, and the canonical tag generator writes the tag for you.
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