{"id":3948,"date":"2022-07-29T15:57:16","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T15:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/?p=3948"},"modified":"2022-07-29T15:57:16","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T15:57:16","slug":"canonical-url","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Canonical URL? (Complete Beginners Guide)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Canonical URL is an essential part of SEO.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you have more than one page targeting a single keyword, you have to use canonical tags to highlight the original page to search engines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Otherwise, both of your pages will conflict, and search engines will never understand which one would be the better fit for that keyword.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>But the question is:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> what exactly is canonical URL or Canonical Tags, and how to implement it on any website?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re going to show you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this post, we&#8217;ll explain the definition of Canonical URL, why it&#8217;s important and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">how you can implement<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> this on your site if you have more than one page <\/span><b>targeting a single keyword<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So without wasting any further time, let&#8217;s dive in.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_73 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-69da516c61887\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-69da516c61887\"  aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/#What_is_a_Canonical_URL\" title=\"What is a Canonical URL?\">What is a Canonical URL?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/#Example_of_Canonical_URL_or_Canonical_Tags\" title=\"Example of Canonical URL or Canonical Tags\">Example of Canonical URL or Canonical Tags<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/#Why_is_Canonical_URL_Important_For_SEO\" title=\"Why is Canonical URL Important For SEO?\">Why is Canonical URL Important For SEO?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/#How_to_Check_The_Canonical_URL_of_Any_Page\" title=\"How to Check The Canonical URL of Any Page.\">How to Check The Canonical URL of Any Page.<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/#How_to_Set_Canonical_URL\" title=\"How to Set Canonical URL\">How to Set Canonical URL<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/#Set_Canonical_Tag_With_Yoast_SEO_Plugin\" title=\"Set Canonical Tag With Yoast SEO Plugin\">Set Canonical Tag With Yoast SEO Plugin<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/#Set_Canonical_Tag_With_Rank_Math\" title=\"Set Canonical Tag With Rank Math\">Set Canonical Tag With Rank Math<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/#Canonical_URL_Best_Practices\" title=\"Canonical URL Best Practices\">Canonical URL Best Practices<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/#1_Dont_Use_More_Than_One_Canonical_URL_on_a_Single_Page\" title=\"1. Don&#8217;t Use More Than One Canonical URL on a Single Page\">1. Don&#8217;t Use More Than One Canonical URL on a Single Page<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/#2_Use_Absolute_URL_Path\" title=\"2. Use Absolute URL Path\">2. Use Absolute URL Path<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/#3_Prefer_HTTPS_over_HTTP_for_canonical_URLs\" title=\"3. Prefer HTTPS over HTTP for canonical URLs\">3. Prefer HTTPS over HTTP for canonical URLs<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-12\" href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/canonical-url\/#Conclusion\" title=\"Conclusion\">Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_is_a_Canonical_URL\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is a Canonical URL?<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignnone size-full wp-image-3951\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/What-is-canonical-URL-1.png\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/What-is-canonical-URL-1.png\" alt=\"What is canonical URL\" width=\"2106\" height=\"1120\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%272106%27%20height%3D%271120%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%202106%201120%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%272106%27%20height%3D%271120%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/What-is-canonical-URL-1-200x106.png 200w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/What-is-canonical-URL-1-300x160.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/What-is-canonical-URL-1-400x213.png 400w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/What-is-canonical-URL-1-600x319.png 600w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/What-is-canonical-URL-1-768x408.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/What-is-canonical-URL-1-800x425.png 800w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/What-is-canonical-URL-1-1024x545.png 1024w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/What-is-canonical-URL-1-1200x638.png 1200w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/What-is-canonical-URL-1-1536x817.png 1536w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/What-is-canonical-URL-1.png 2106w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 2106px) 100vw, 2106px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Canonical URL, also known as <\/span><b><i>Canonical tags<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, is an <\/span><b>HTML element<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that informs Google about the main version of the page.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This helps prevent duplicate content issues as you&#8217;re already telling Google about the master copy between the identical contents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Duplicate content <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is the biggest issue we often face in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/advanced-seo-techniques\/\">search engine optimization<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the website grows, it unknowingly starts facing duplicate content issues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if you don&#8217;t do it intentionally, it&#8217;s tough to prevent duplicate content on any website if you&#8217;re doing it all alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In fact, large publication houses and websites with hundreds of employees also face this issue quite often.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So if you don&#8217;t want Google to get confused between your posts, you should always use canonical URLs or tags within your page.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Example_of_Canonical_URL_or_Canonical_Tags\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Example of Canonical URL or Canonical Tags<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A canonical tag is just an HTML tag that stays within the backend code of your site.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here&#8217;s what the canonical tag looks like:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>rel=&#8221;canonical&#8221;<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And here&#8217;s what it looks like within the backend code of the website:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignnone size-full wp-image-3954\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Canonical-URL-example.png\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Canonical-URL-example.png\" alt=\"Canonical URL example\" width=\"1394\" height=\"367\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%271394%27%20height%3D%27367%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%201394%20367%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%271394%27%20height%3D%27367%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Canonical-URL-example-200x53.png 200w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Canonical-URL-example-300x79.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Canonical-URL-example-400x105.png 400w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Canonical-URL-example-600x158.png 600w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Canonical-URL-example-768x202.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Canonical-URL-example-800x211.png 800w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Canonical-URL-example-1024x270.png 1024w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Canonical-URL-example-1200x316.png 1200w, https:\/\/blog.zutrix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Canonical-URL-example.png 1394w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 1394px) 100vw, 1394px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_is_Canonical_URL_Important_For_SEO\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why is Canonical URL Important For SEO?<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if you think you don&#8217;t have duplicate content on your site, you have it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When you launch a brand new website, content management systems (CMS) usually <\/span><b>create multiple versions of your website or pages<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. And all of these versions are indexable by Google.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Have a look at the following pages:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">www.exmaple.com<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\/<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">http:\/\/www.example.com\/<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/example.com<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">http:\/\/example.com\/<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/m.example.com\/<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/example.com\/index.php<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though we might think all the pages are basically the same, for the search engines, each version of the page is a separate and duplicate page.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s so easy to have duplicate content on any website without even knowing about it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And canonical tags help you to avoid that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In short, if you have multiple versions of a single page (even the homepage) or similar contents on both pages, you should <\/span><b>use canonical tags or canonical URLs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to specify the primary source page to Google.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_to_Check_The_Canonical_URL_of_Any_Page\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How to Check The Canonical URL of Any Page.<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It&#8217;s super easy to check the canonical URL of any page.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To do that, click on the <\/span><b>left mouse key<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and click on the <\/span><b>view source page<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then click on <\/span><b>Ctrl + F<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on windows or <\/span><b>Command + F<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on mac and search for <\/span><b>&#8220;canonical.&#8221;<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And here, you can easily see the canonical URL of the page.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the canonical URL is referring to the current URL, that means this page is unique and isn&#8217;t referring to any parent page.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_to_Set_Canonical_URL\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How to Set Canonical URL<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you&#8217;re using any <\/span><b>content management platform (CMS)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> like <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">WordPress<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wix.com\/\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Wix<\/a>, you&#8217;ll either get this option in-built or easily use any <a href=\"https:\/\/zutrix.com\/blog\/wordpress-seo-plugins\/\">SEO plugin<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On platforms like Wix, you get this option built-in, but for WordPress, you have to <\/span><b>use an external plugin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you&#8217;re a WordPress user, you can either use the Yoast SEO plugin (the most popular SEO plugin) or Rank Math to implement canonical URLs on your pages quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>But how?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Don&#8217;t worry. We&#8217;ll show you step-by-step how to do this using these plugins.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Set_Canonical_Tag_With_Yoast_SEO_Plugin\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Set Canonical Tag With Yoast SEO Plugin<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It&#8217;s extremely easy to set canonical URLs with <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wordpress-seo\/\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Yoast<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To do that, create a new post or edit an existing post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then, go to the <\/span><b>advanced section<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the Yoast sidebar or meta editing box.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here, you&#8217;ll get an option to <\/span><b>enter a canonical URL<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the page. Enter the <\/span><b>appropriate URL<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and hit <\/span><b>Save<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That&#8217;s all.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Set_Canonical_Tag_With_Rank_Math\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Set Canonical Tag With Rank Math<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The process is quite similar on the <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmath.com\/\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">rank math<\/a> plugin as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Edit the page on which you want to add a <\/span><b><i>canonical URL<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and navigate to the advanced tab of the rank math editor from the right sidebar.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>PS:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Make sure you have advanced mode enabled. Otherwise, you won&#8217;t get this option. To enable advanced mode on Rank Math, go to <\/span><b>WordPress Dashboard &gt; Rank Math &gt; Dashboard.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the advanced tab, you&#8217;ll get an option to enter the <\/span><b>canonical URL<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for that particular page.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once you enter the URL, click on <\/span><b>Save,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and you&#8217;re all done.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Canonical_URL_Best_Practices\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Canonical URL Best Practices<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It&#8217;s pretty easy to implement Canonical URLs on any website (especially if you&#8217;re a WordPress user).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But just inserting canonical URLs on your pages won&#8217;t help.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You also have to follow specific rules that are set by Google to make sure everything runs smoothly.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Dont_Use_More_Than_One_Canonical_URL_on_a_Single_Page\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1. Don&#8217;t Use More Than One Canonical URL on a Single Page<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You should <\/span><b>never use more than one canonical URL<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for a single page. Each page should have a single canonical URL referring to one main page of the duplicate content.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you use any WordPress plugin for that, you won&#8217;t be able to add more than one canonical URL per page.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But if you do it manually, you must keep this in mind.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_Use_Absolute_URL_Path\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2. Use Absolute URL Path<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As suggested by Google, you should only use absolute paths rather than relative paths with the <\/span><b>rel= &#8220;canonical&#8221;<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> tag.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For example, don&#8217;t use this URL structure:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\/category\/baseball\/caps<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead, you should use the full URL path like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.example.com\/category\/baseball\/caps<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_Prefer_HTTPS_over_HTTP_for_canonical_URLs\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">3. Prefer HTTPS over HTTP for canonical URLs<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whenever you insert a <\/span><b>canonical URL<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, make sure you include the HTTPS version of the URL.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Google prefers HTTPS version pages over HTTP for canonical purposes, excluding a few exceptions.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Conclusion<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So this is what a canonical URL is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Canonical URL is an essential part of any website as it helps Google to differentiate between duplicate or quite similar content.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you&#8217;re using CMS platforms like WordPress, you can quickly and easily implement it on your website.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Do let us know if you have any questions regarding canonical URLs on your mind. We&#8217;d be happy to answer those.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canonical URL is an essential part of SEO. If you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-seo","category-technical-seo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Canonical URL? 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