If you have a single page that's accessible by multiple URLs, or different pages with similar content (for example, a page with both a mobile and a desktop version), Google sees these as duplicate versions of the same page. Google will choose one URL as the canonical version and crawl that, and all other URLs will be considered duplicate URLs and crawled less often. Show
If you don't explicitly tell Google which URL is canonical, Google will make the choice for you, or might consider them both of equal weight, which might lead to unwanted behavior, as explained in . This document explains how URL canonicalization works in Google Search, whether you need to specify a canonical URL, and how to specify your preference to Google. What is a canonical URL?A canonical URL is the URL of the page that Google thinks is most representative from a set of duplicate pages on your site. For example, if you have URLs for the same page ( The pages don't need to be absolutely identical; minor changes in sorting or filtering of list pages don't make the page unique (for example, sorting by price or filtering by item color). The canonical URL can be in a different domain than a duplicate URL. How Google indexes and chooses the canonical URLWhen Google indexes a site, it tries to determine the primary content of each page. If Google finds multiple pages on the same site that seem to be the same, it chooses the page that it thinks is the most complete and useful, and marks it as canonical. The canonical page will be crawled most regularly; duplicates are crawled less frequently in order to reduce the crawling load on your site. Google chooses the canonical page based on a number of factors (or signals), such as whether the page is served via HTTP or HTTPS, page quality, presence of the URL in a sitemap, and any Different language versions of a single page are considered duplicates only if the main content is in the same language (that is, if only the header, footer, and other non-critical text is translated, but the body remains the same, then the pages are considered to be duplicates). Google uses the canonical pages as the main sources to evaluate content and quality. A Google Search result usually points to the canonical page, unless one of the duplicates is explicitly better suited for a user. For example, the search result will probably point to the mobile page if the user is on a mobile device, even if the desktop page is marked as canonical. Reasons for having similar or duplicate pagesThere are valid reasons why your site might have different URLs that point to the same page, or have duplicate or very similar pages at different URLs. Here are the most common reasons:
Reasons to choose a canonical URLThere are a number of reasons why you would want to explicitly choose a canonical page in a set of duplicate or similar pages:
Learn which page Google considers canonicalUse the to learn which page Google considers canonical. Even if you explicitly designate a canonical page, Google might choose a different canonical for various reasons, such as performance or content. Specify a canonical pageTo specify a canonical URL for duplicate URLs or similar pages, choose one of the following methods. While we encourage you to use any of these methods, none of them are required. If you don't indicate a canonical URL, we'll identify what we think is the best version or URL. Be sure to follow the . If you use a CMS, such as WordPress, Wix, or Blogger, you might not be able to edit your HTML directly. Instead, your CMS might have a search engine settings page or some other mechanism to tell search engines about the canonical URL. Search for instructions about modifying the https://www.example.com/products?category=dresses&color=green https://example.com/dresses/cocktail?gclid=ABCD https://www.example.com/dresses/green/greendress.html6 of your page on your CMS (for example, search for "wordpress set the canonical tag").Method and description Add a https://www.example.com/products?category=dresses&color=green https://example.com/dresses/cocktail?gclid=ABCD https://www.example.com/dresses/green/greendress.html8 tag in the code for all duplicate pages, pointing to the canonical page.Pros:
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Send a Pros:
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Specify your canonical pages in a sitemap. Pros:
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https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/3 redirects to tell Googlebot that a redirected URL is a better version than a given URL. Use this only when deprecating a duplicate page.AMP variantIf one of your variants is an AMP page, follow the AMP guidelines to indicate the canonical page and AMP variant. General guidelinesFor all canonicalization methods, follow these general guidelines:
Prefer HTTPS over HTTP for canonical URLsGoogle prefers HTTPS pages over equivalent HTTP pages as canonical, except when there are issues or conflicting signals such as the following:
Although our systems prefer HTTPS pages over HTTP pages by default, you can ensure this behavior by taking any of the following actions:
To prevent Google from incorrectly making the HTTP page canonical, avoid the following practices:
Use a https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/5 https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/8 tagA rel=”canonical” link tag (canonical tag) is a tag used in the head section of HTML to indicate that a page overlaps another page. To indicate when a page is a duplicate of another page, you can use a https://www.example.com/products?category=dresses&color=green https://example.com/dresses/cocktail?gclid=ABCD https://www.example.com/dresses/green/greendress.html8 tag in the https://example.com/green-dresses https://example.com/green-dresses https://www.example.com/green-dresses https://example.com:80/green-dresses https://example.com:443/green-dresses4 section of your HTML. Suppose you want https://example.com/green-dresses https://example.com/green-dresses https://www.example.com/green-dresses https://example.com:80/green-dresses https://example.com:443/green-dresses5 to be the canonical URL, even though a variety of URLs can access this content. Indicate this URL as canonical with these steps:
Use absolute paths rather than relative paths with the https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/5 https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/8 tag. Good example: https://www.example.com/products?category=dresses&color=green https://example.com/dresses/cocktail?gclid=ABCD https://www.example.com/dresses/green/greendress.html2 Bad example: <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/dresses/green-dresses" />5 If you use JavaScript to add the https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/5 link tag, make sure to . Use a https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/5 HTTP headerIf you can configure your server, you can use a https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/5 HTTP header (rather than an HTML tag) to indicate the canonical URL for a document supported by Search, including non-HTML documents such as PDF files. Google currently supports this method for web search results only. If you expose a PDF file through multiple URLs, you can return a https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/5 HTTP header to tell Googlebot what is the canonical URL for the PDF file: Link: <https://www.example.com/downloads/white-paper.pdf>; rel="canonical" The recommendations for the https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/5 HTTP header are the same as https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/5 https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/8 tag. As per RFC2616, use only double quotes in the https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/5 HTTP header. Use a sitemapPick a canonical URL for each of your pages and submit them in a sitemap. All pages listed in a sitemap are suggested as canonicals; Google will decide which pages (if any) pages are duplicates, based on similarity of content. We don't guarantee that we'll consider the sitemap URLs to be canonical, but it is a simple way of defining canonicals for a large site, and sitemaps are a useful way to tell Google which pages you consider most important on your site. Don't include non-canonical pages in a sitemap. If you're using a sitemap, specify only canonical URLs in the sitemap. Use https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/3 redirects for retired URLsUse this method when you want to get rid of existing duplicate pages, but need to ensure a smooth transition before you retire the old URLs. Suppose your page can be reached in multiple ways:
Pick one of those URLs as your canonical URL, and use https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/3 redirects to send traffic from the other URLs to your preferred URL. A server-side https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/3 redirect is the best way to ensure that users and search engines are directed to the correct page. The https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/3 status code means that a page has permanently moved to a new location. If you are on a website hosting service, do a search for their documentation on setting up https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ https://blog.example.com/green-things/green-dresses-are-awesome/3 redirects. TroubleshootingIf a canonical URL is in a property that you don't own, you won't be able to see any of the traffic for your duplicate page. Here are some common reasons that a canonical can exist in a separate property: |