SEO is important for every website, and an online store is no exception. Canonical URLs play a crucial role in ensuring that websites are not penalized by search engines and that SEO remains strong. They ensure that search engines are not confused when different URLs link to the same content or web page, and can help inform which URLs have identical or very similar content.
What is a canonical URL?
A canonical URL refers to an HTML link element with a rel="canonical" attribute (also known as a canonical tag), located in the <head> element of a web page. It specifies the preferred URL to search engines.
This means that the canonical URL element informs Google and other search engines how to crawl a webpage and under which URL to index the content of a given page. This is important because URLs can vary based on different factors, but they may display the same or similar content.
If you have a webpage accessible from multiple URLs or different pages with similar content (e.g., separate versions for mobile devices and computers), you should specify to the search engine which URL is authoritative (canonical) for the given page.
Why are canonical URLs important?
They help determine which URL you want people to see in the search results.
You might prefer people to land on your blue t-shirts product page via:
https://www.krcmic.com/tshirts/blue/bluetshirt.html
Instead of being directed to:
https://krcmic.com/tshirts/sportswear?gclid=ABCD
Using canonicals will help you maintain "purity".
They simplify tracking metrics for one product/topic.
If there are a variety of different URLs, it's more challenging to get consolidated metrics for a specific piece of content. Canonical URLs help keep things simple and organized, especially when it comes to reporting performance to a client.
They consolidate link signals for similar or duplicate pages and manage syndicated content.
Canonical URLs help search engines consolidate information they have for individual URLs (like links to them) into a single authoritative URL. If you also syndicate your content for publication on other domains, canonical URLs help consolidate page ranking onto the preferred URL. In other words, similar or duplicate content across different web pages will not have to compete for traffic/position in search engines.
For specific use cases, you can create custom canonical URLs for pages or blog posts using if commands based on different templates in the theme and using theme settings. This is usually only necessary if you are doing some advanced URL masking.
Different ways to canonicalize multiple URLs
Focusing on canonical URLs primarily falls into the on-page SEO category, not off-page SEO (although you should keep track of the overall redirection strategy somewhere). Besides using rel="canonical", there are multiple ways to canonicalize URLs. In most cases, rel="canonical" is the recommended way of consolidating duplicate content for search engines, however, here are a few other canonicalization methods worth considering.
Use 301 redirects
A 301 redirect is a status code that tells Google or other search engines that you want to create a permanent redirection from one URL to another. A 301 redirect sends visitors and search engines to a different URL than the one they originally requested in their browser or clicked on in the search results page. These redirects also link different URLs together, so search engines evaluate all the URLs based on the domain authority from inbound links.
Use passive parameters in Google Search Console
In Google Search Console, once your website is verified, you'll find the option to set URL parameters. This allows you to tell Google which parameters you want to consider passive. That means you can tell Google: "Whenever you see this URL parameter, treat it as if it didn't exist".
Use location hashes
A Fragment URL, also known as a fragment identifier, is a URL with a # at the end, indicating a specific part of a page (typically jumping to an id that corresponds to the fragment identifier's name).
A hash can exist in a URL, and Google along with other search engines will consider it as a single URL. This means that the jumped content will not be evaluated differently, hence, not indexed differently. Essentially, it will be canonicalized to the same URL.
What to keep in mind and avoid
When dealing with SEO and canonicalization, it's crucial to fully comprehend the implications it has on search ranking. The effects can be either good or bad, and to sidestep the bad ones, I've put together several things to remember when using canonical URLs.
Canonical URL or 301 redirect?
Choosing between a 301 redirect and setting up a canonical URL can sometimes be challenging. If there are no technical reasons not to perform the redirect, you should always proceed with it. If you can't redirect because it would disrupt the user experience or would otherwise be problematic, set up a canonical URL.
Don't block Google from crawling specific URLs
With a robots.txt file, you can inform Google which pages to prohibit, essentially indicating which ones to crawl and which ones not to.
However, this becomes problematic when dealing with duplicate content. Essentially, you're telling Google not to look at a particular page, and as a result, Google bot doesn't crawl or index the page at all. This means that any ranking signals that the page might have (even if it's duplicate content) could contribute to the original source if it was specified with a canonical URL. This implies that you're missing out on engagement signals, content signals, and anything that would aid in Google placement.
Don't hastily remove non-canonical versions
Regarding duplicate content, there's sometimes a tendency to "clean up" and remove or delete old posts, products, etc. The problem is that this content was sometimes linked or referred to elsewhere.
For example, someone might have saved a product on Pinterest, and they will no longer have access to it after it's removed. The solution here is to redirect to a new page or product that should be available to potential customers instead. The only instance where it's recommended to remove pages entirely without redirecting is when they were created by mistake, are very new, or have little to no traffic.
In case you accidentally remove old content, ensure you have set up a 404 error page for the client that improves the user experience (UX) rather than ruining it. Some of the best 404 pages are memorable because they contain a great mix of humor and strong UX.
Canonical URLs for all!
SEO is essential for every website, and using canonical URLs can better inform search engines about which URLs have identical or very similar content. Understanding the use of canonical URLs is one of the many fundamental skills of front-end developers you will need for optimizing your clients' websites.
Source: https://www.krcmic.com/blog/
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