{"id":148729,"date":"2024-02-07T10:05:27","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T10:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/?p=148729"},"modified":"2025-03-27T13:12:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T13:12:20","slug":"canonical-tag-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/marketing\/seo\/canonical-tag-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Canonical Tags In SEO: What They Are and How to Use Them Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

Duplicate content can be confusing to both users and search engines alike. Users stumbling over repeated content on more than one URL might wonder if they are in the right place, especially if search engines index and rank the wrong page in the SERP (Search Engine Resulvts Page). So how can you avoid this kind of duplicate content? The easiest way is with canonical tags.<\/p>\n

In this post, we\u2019ll explain what canonical tags are and how to add a canonical tag in HTML code on your page.<\/p>\n

What is a canonical tag, and what does it look like?<\/h2>\n

A canonical tag in SEO is an HTML element that indicates to search engines what the primary (or canonical) version of a web page is when multiple URLs have similar content. It helps search engines index the content you want to be indexed, ensuring that the right URL appears in search results.<\/p>\n

The canonical tag is implemented in the HTML head section of a web page and looks like this:<\/p>\n

<link rel=”canonical” href=”https:\/\/www.example.com\/preferred-page” \/><\/p>\n

In the canonical tag example above, link rel=”canonical”<\/b> tells search engines that the included link (href=”https:\/\/www.example.com\/preferred-page”<\/b>) is the main version of the content.<\/p>\n

Why are canonical tags important for SEO?<\/h2>\n

Duplicate or near-duplicate content on a site often causes indexing issues and low-ranking performance. Canonical tags help you resolve those duplicate content issues.<\/p>\n

When search engines encounter identical or very similar content on your site, they may struggle to determine which version is the most important one. By presenting multiple versions of a page, you force the search engine to pick one.<\/p>\n

Will the search engine pick the right one?<\/p>\n

The wrong page ranking in the search results isn\u2019t the only risk of duplicate content. You also have the risk of ranking<\/b> cannibalization<\/b><\/a>. Ranking cannibalization occurs when the search engine divides ranking signals among the duplicate pages, which could result in your well-optimized and relevant content finding itself at the bottom of the search results.<\/p>\n

If you have a large site, that\u2019s not your only concern either. That crawl budget of yours might be quickly used up on crawling multiple pages with similar content – and once that\u2019s used up, Google might miss some of your important pages.<\/p>\n

To avoid cannibalization and wasted budget, the most effective way to establish the right pages as canonical is with canonical tags.<\/p>\n

Canonical tags are considered by Google to be a strong indication that a page is canonical. But yes, you read that correctly: a strong indication. This means even if you implement canonical tags, Google might still choose a different URL as canonical.<\/p>\n

To ensure that Google chooses the right URL, you want to reinforce your canonical URLs using other methods – we\u2019ll cover those methods in a minute.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Diagnose keyword cannibalization issues with ease<\/p>\n

Neutralize your cannibalization and rank higher in search.<\/p>\n

\n Go to Similarweb<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

When should you worry about duplicate content?<\/h2>\n

Duplicate content<\/a> issues happen more often than you think; this is because search engine bots might reach a page from multiple versions of a URL.<\/p>\n

For instance:<\/p>\n