What is Canonical Tag in SEO - Definition

What is Canonical Tag in SEO Definition – Canonization is a very important part of Technical SEO. If you are interested in SEO then you must have heard the name of Canonical Tag at some point or the other.

But do you know What is Canonical Tag, why Canonical Tag is used, what are the benefits of using Canonical Tag, and how to create Canonical Tag for your blog.

If you want to know the answer to the above asked questions, then read this article till the end. In this article you will get complete information related to Canonical Tag. And there will be no doubt in your mind about Canonical Tag.

So let’s start this article without any delay to know more what is Canonical Tag, why it is important and all canonical tag definition in SEO.

Table of Contents

What is Canonical Tag?

Canonical Tag was created in February 2009 by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Whose main job was to tell the Most Preferred Page of any website or webpage to the search engine. Canonical Tag is mainly an HTML command. Which search engine bots get written in the head section of the blog. This comes in technical seo canonical.

Many times it happens in a blog that different URLs are created for the same content or webpage, due to which Search Engine Bots considers all URLs to be different pages. And there is a big problem in front of them that which URL they should index and which they should not. Due to this there is a problem of duplicate content or Canonical issue in the blog.

Canonical Tag is used to overcome this problem. Through Canonical Tag, we tell the main URL of our webpage to the search engine. Search engines index the web page related to the URL added to the Canonical Tag, and ignore other similar URLs.

Canonical Tag tells the search engine which URL of a website is Preferred or Favorite which is to be indexed.

Canonical tag definition / canonical tag meaning

Canonical Tag is an HTML tag written in the head section of the blog, which tells the search engine that this is the main URL of our blog or webpage which we have added to Canonical Tag. If a similar URL like this is found elsewhere in our website, then that URL should be ignored.

Meaning that the URL that you have added to the Canonical Tag of the blog is the Main URL of your webpage. And other URLs that are related to that Canonical URL are duplicates of the Main URL.

What is Canonical URL

The Most Preferred URL, or Main URL, of a webpage is called the Canonical URL. The Canonical URL tells the search engine which of the lookalike URLs is the main URL to index.

Canonical Tag Basic Structure

<link rel="canonical" href="https://Example.com/" />

Why Canonical Tag is used

By now you must have understood that what is Canonical Tag, now we know why we use Canonical Tag.

Very often it happens that two or more URLs are created for the same page of the blog. Due to which the search engine bots index all the URLs as separate pages, and the issue of duplicate content comes. Canonical Tag is used to solve this problem.

Now you must be thinking that why would we have two URLs of any of our website or webpage. Let me tell you the answer of that too.

Suppose this is the main URL of my website – https://aitechtonic.com

This URL will appear as follows in different versions, such as –

https://aitechtonic.com (without www)

https://aitechtonic.com/AMP (AMP version of website)
https://aitechtonic.com (without SSL certificate)
https://aitechtonic.com/?m=1 (mobile version in blogger)

Since our website is the same, and so many different versions of that website have been created. So now the search engine bots are not advanced enough to know that all these URLs belong to the same website. Therefore, it is very important to use Canonical Tag to tell the Main URL to the search engine bots.

Using Canonical Tag, search engine bots understand which is the main URL and which is the duplicate URL. Due to which there is no problem of duplicate content or Canonical issue in our webmaster tools (Google Search Console).

Advantages of Canonical Tag

Canonical tags have the following advantages –

Avoids the problem of duplicate content.
Ranking is better in the search result page.
The indexing of the webpage is done in a proper way.

It is easy to explain to the search engine bots which pages are to be indexed and which are not.

How to make Canonical Tag

I am going to tell you the easiest method to create Canonical Tag and add it to the website. here we provide canonical tag generator

Step 1 – First of all, by clicking on this link, you come to the website that generates the canonical tag. Canonical Tag Generator

Step 2 – Now this type of page will open in front of you (see picture below), here you enter the URL of your website and click on the submit option.

Step 3 – Now your Canonical Tag is ready. After this you have to copy and paste this code in the head section of your website.

How to Add Canonical Tag in Blogger

By default Canonical Tag is already there in Blogger, but if you change the theme then you may have to face Canonical Issue in Google Search Console due to lack of Canonical Tag in some themes.

To add Canonical Tag in Blogger, follow the process given below –

On the left side of the Blogger Dashboard, you will get the option of Theme, click on it.
Now click on Edit HTML here.

Press Ctrl+F and find <head> .
Now paste the Canonical tag under the head section.

How to Add Canonical Tag to WordPress or how to add canonical tag in blogger

You do not need to do much in WordPress, whatever SEO plugin you use already has this feature.

When you write an article in WordPress, you will get the option of Canonical URL in SEO Plugin. From here you can change the Canonical URL if you want. Otherwise leave it as it is.

FAQ’s

Q1 – What are Canonical Tags?

Canonical Tags are such HTML tags that tell the search engine which is the main URL of the website or webpage.

Q2 – Do Canonical Tags Affect SEO?

Canonical Tags protect the website from the problem of duplicity. Due to which the structure of the website remains correct and the user experience is also better. That’s why Canonical Tags are important in SEO.

Q3 – Where are Canonical Tags added?

Canonical Tag is placed in the head section of the website.

Q4 – What is Canonical Issue?

This is the Canonical Issue when more than one URL of a website is created, and they all redirect to the same content.

Read more article:

Conclusion

Through this article, I have given you all the information related to what is Canonical Tag. I sincerely hope that after reading this article completely, you must have understood how important Canonical Tags are for the ranking of any website. If you still have questions related to your Canonical Tag, then you can ask in the comment box.

In this article, I hope that you must have liked this article and you must have got to learn something from this article. Do not forget to share this article with your Blogger friends so that they can also know about Canonical Tag.

What is Canonical Tag in SEO – Definition