Have you ever done the canonicalization process or changed a URL to another version, namely the canonical version? Do you still think it has the same functionality as URLs in general? If so, how about we invite you to get acquainted more deeply with canonical tags? To understand more about it and be aware of what this one component has to offer.
Table of Contents
- Definition of Canonical Tags
- Canonical Tags and SEO
- Experiencing the Following Situation? Get Ready to Engage the Canonical Tag
- Don’t Understand About Canonical Tags? This is the first step
- 5 Mistakes in Application of Canonical Tags
- Conclusion
Definition of Canonical Tags
The canonical rail or canonical tag refers to an HTML element that can help avoid duplication of content. This element can also inform search engines that the URL you include on the content page or web page is the original and the definitive version. Canonical tags have indications to assist in indexing URLs.
If you are having problems detecting identical or duplicate content, rails canonical can be the solution to that problem. Rails canonical will automatically tell search engines which URL you want to appear in search results. In short, you can call rel canonical as a website source code pointer.
Below you can see the difference between the original URL and rel canonical:
<link rel=”canonical” href= https://www.ngulikenak.net”> />
When you have multiple web pages containing content that is similar to one another, the canonical tags should be integrated into the second URL element to refer to the first page. Of course, the original URL of your main web page is essential, therefore, rel canonical is here to prevent the detection of duplicate content by search engines. Rails canonical will show that the URL of the main page is more important and should appear on SERP indexing.
There are various applications of rel canonical on multiple URLs, here are 4 ways to use canonical tags;
- 301 predict
- Rails=canonical
- Passive Parameters
- Location hash
Are you currently wondering what problems require webmasters to use rail canonical? The answer is because search engines assume that each unique URL is a separate new page, not the same as before. You could say that there are different points of view between us as humans and also search engines, where we often assume that a page is the fruit of an idea in the form of a concept. Don’t forget that dealing with search engines is also related to SEO, which means canonical rails are also important to the SEO process.
Canonical Tags and SEO
Do you think rail canonical can present a significant benefit for SEO? The right answer is of course! Proper selection and use of canonical tags on any similar set of URLs can improve the SEO of your website. Of course, it can happen, because search engines are well acquainted with the original URL and the rail canonical version of every website that implements it.
The fact that search engines don’t like duplicate content is inevitable. Duplicate content is also very troublesome for search engines. Why? Because search engines can get confused about which pages to index and rank for. In addition to search engines, duplicate content can also be a hassle for you because it can affect crawling costs.
Therefore, including rail canonical is a great way to not only help yourself, but also help search engines, and can help improve SEO.
Experiencing the Following Situation? Get Ready to Engage the Canonical Tag
Perhaps you can easily assume that no part of your website shows any signs of duplicate content. Yes, thinking that way is natural because you may feel that you understand the website that you create and manage the most. However, it should be emphasized once again, that there is a different point of view between us and search engines.
Search engine algorithms will certainly easily track duplicate content through simple features. To prevent this from happening, you can understand the simple characteristics that cause a website to be tracked as duplicate content below:
- URL for search parameters
- Separately printable version of the page
- URL for session ID
- Separate pdf page version
- Other HTTPs Variants
- AMP and non-AMP versions
- The homepage can be accessed with different URL
- www and non-www versions serving the same content on both
- URLs with and without capital letters serving the same content on both
- URL version with and without a slash ( / )
If you feel your website meets one or more of the above characteristics, you should be wary. Be alert in what way? By applying or applying rel canonical to your website so that it is not suspected by search engines as duplicate content.
Don’t Understand About Canonical Tags? This is the first step
You’re having trouble with duplicate content due to URLs but don’t know how to fix it with rails canonical? No need to worry because we will present some easy initial steps for you to follow so you can avoid the detection of duplicate content by search engines.
To work around duplicate content issues due to URLs, use the following:
- Absolute URL
- Correct domain version
- Canonical tags on every page
- URL with lowercase
- Canonical tags referencing your website
If you have correctly applied some of these steps in practice with canonical tags, then you have successfully mastered the basic steps of using canonical rails on your website URLs.
5 Mistakes in Application of Canonical Tags
When it comes to implementing rails canonical, it’s not uncommon for you to come across some errors. However, as much as possible you avoid that mistake because it will still hurt your web page, especially in the SEO process. At least, when you want to implement it, you must understand very well the steps that will be taken to apply canonical tags. There are some taboos that you should avoid. Let’s look at the points below carefully;
- Don’t use canonical rails on archives that are turned into a page
- Make it specific, don’t throw anything in your URL like https particles and others
- Do not use variables such as the request URL used to access the current page
- Multiple rel=canonical links on a page can cause a mess
- Blocking rel=canonic links with robots.txt
Conclusion
What do you think about canonical tags after reading our description? Do canonical tags seem ‘scary’ and complicated to you? If so, maybe you should get acquainted with him again to get a deeper understanding. The facts show that canonical tags are not that complicated, but they are a little difficult to digest. Practice makes perfect! By increasing the understanding and practice of applying canonical tags, you will be able to master them slowly. Keep in mind some of the factors that may be associated with it.