A canonical URL is a tag that indicates which version of a page is the “original” or preferred version when the same content exists at multiple URLs.
Why Canonical Tags Are Necessary
The same page is often accessible via multiple URLs unintentionally: with and without tracking parameters, with and without a trailing slash, or via both http and https. Without a canonical tag, Google has to decide which version to display, and the ranking value gets diluted across the duplicates instead of being consolidated.
How Canonical Tags Work
The tag <link rel="canonical" href="..."> in the <head> A page's URL explicitly points to the preferred version. All seo-The value of links and signals pointing to the non-canonical variants is therefore consolidated on the designated URL.
Common Mistakes
A canonical tag that points to an incorrect or nonexistent page, or a self-referencing canonical tag that is accidentally missing from an important page, can unintentionally cause valuable content to disappear from the index.
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