Correct Implementation Of Canonical Tags
-
Hopefully this is an easy one to answer.
When canonical tags are added to web pages should there be a canonical tag on a page that canonicalizes(?) (new word!?) back to itself.
i.e. four page all point back to page Z. On page Z there is a canonical tag that points to page Z?
My feeling without any technical know how is that this is just creating an infinite loop i.e. go to this page for original content, (repeat)
Or this could be completely correct!
Don't want to go back to the developer and point out the error if I'm wrong!
-
I think that this is the video that was mentioned by Rich. It goes back to 2011. Matt does say that he can't account for other search engines, but Google is cool with using a rel="canonincal" tag to point to "itself."
-
Awesome - thanks for the quick responses!
-
Hey there
Having a self referring canonical tag, as it were, is something I'd recommend for a couple of reasons.
As you have pointed out, canonical tags can help remove the chance of other duplicate pages getting indexed. However, Google will indexes URLs and one physical page can have a number of different URLs. For example, if your website has a search function of anything else that might produce a query string (like domain.com/page?query), these URLs can also be indexed and would be seen as duplicate content by Google.
There would not be a physical page to apply the tag to, but if you add a self referring canonical tag, any dynamic URL that is generated by your CMS should not be indexed, helping to limit the chance of any duplicate content penalty.
Furthermore, I believe that having a tag on your page protects you somewhat from scrapers and people stealing your content. If your page is indexed first with your tag, any syndicated or duplicate versions from 3rd parties in theory should not be able to rank that content.
You look at places like Search Engine Land and they have these self referring canonicals too.
Hope this helps. Enjoy your weekend!
-
You can canoncical to the same page yes, i saw a video or blog from Matt Cutts just the other week confirming this but cant for the life of me find it again now. Will pop the link on here if i find it unless anyone else in the community can provide confirmation before hand.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What is the correct Canonical tag on m.site?
We have 2 separate sites for desktop (www.example.com) and mobile (m.example.com) As per the guideline, we have added Rel=alternate tag on www.example.com to point to mobile URL(m.example.com) and Rel=canonical tag on m.example.com to point to Desktop site(www.example.com).However, i didn't find any guideline on what canonical tag we should add ifFor Desktop sitewww.example.com/PageA - has a canonical tag to www.example.com/PageBOn this page, we have a Rel=alternate tag m.example.com/pageAWhat will be the canonical we should add for the mobile version of Page Am.example.com/PageA - Canonical tag point to www.example.com/PageA -or www.example.com/PageB?Kalpesh
Technical SEO | | kguard0 -
Meta Title Tags - Quick question!
Hi all, Our category Meta Title Tags are a little woeful and so I'm in the process of rewriting them. Let's say you have a product for sale.... some inkjet cartridges for a Canon BJ10V printer for example. In an effort to keep things concise I was thinking that for this category I should have the meta title set simply as: 'Canon BJ10V Inkjet Cartridges' and perhaps our company name after this text (and a pipe delimiter) This takes us just under 50 characters which is ideal but doesn't include any real keyword variation and will result in the company name being duplicated at the tail of the title tag on 6,000 odd pages. A large number of my competitors have title tags along the lines of: 'Canon BJ10V Cheap Inkjet Cartridges for Canon BJ-10V Ink Printers' I understand the reasoning behind this but does the variation of keywords compensate for the fact that the title looks spammy (to both humans and Search Engines). What would you do? Keep it clean and concise or stuff the title full of keywords. In the event of the former would you include the company name in each title in the knowledge they would be well under 50 characters without? Thanks for your help.
Technical SEO | | ChrisHolgate1 -
Duplicate Title Tags
Hi, Are these 2 title tags different enough? Notice only the 's' on Templates is switched <colgroup><col width="559"></colgroup>
Technical SEO | | Studio33
| Invoice Templates | Invoice Template | invoicing Software | Invoice Software Invoice Template | Invoice Templates | invoicing Software | Invoice Software | Thanks0 -
Are my canonical re directs working?
Buonjourno from Wetherby UK 🙂 Ive been battlling sometime to get this site http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk to rank for term Right To Manage. Amongst other tactics ive set up a canonical http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/about/right-to-manage.aspx * - Canonical version http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/how-we-care-for-you/right-to-manage.aspx http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/what-our-customers-say/right-to-manage.aspx http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/ - But has this canonical redirect feature worked? The reason i doubt it is i notice when i enter a page http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/what-our-customers-say/right-to-manage.aspx which has the below code in place: rell="canonical" href="http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/About/right-to-manage.aspx/" /> It does not jump to http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/about/right-to-manage.aspx So my question is... "is the canonical redirect working or not & waht is the best way / tool for diagnosing a canonical error" Grazie tanto,
Technical SEO | | Nightwing
David0 -
Testing for duplicate content and title tags
Hi there, I have been getting both Duplicate Page content and Duplicate Title content warnings on my crawl diagnostics report for one of my campaigns. I did my research, and implemented the preferred domain setting in Webmaster Tools. This did not resolve the crawl diagnostics warnings, and upon further research I discovered the preferred domain would only be noted by Google and not other bots like Roger. My only issue was that when I ran an SEOmoz crawl test on the same domain, I saw none of the duplicate content or title warnings yet they still appear on my crawl diagnostics report. I have now implemented a fix in my .htaccess file to 301 redirect to the www. domain. I want to check if it's worked, but since the crawl test did not show the issue last time I don't think I can rely on that. Can you help please? Thanks, Claire
Technical SEO | | SEOvet0 -
Googleoff/on tags
Hi all, I'd like to restrict Google indexing a part of content on the page. Does tag really work for it as it described on https://developers.google.com/search-appliance/documentation/46/admin_crawl/Preparing#pagepart? Thanks, Jane
Technical SEO | | Jane_Barry0 -
Correct Indexing problem
I recently redirected an old site to a new site. All the URLs were the same except the domain. When I redirected them I failed to realize the new site had https enable on all pages. I have noticed that Google is now indexing both the http and https version of pages in the results. How can I fix this? I am going to submit a sitemap but don't know if there is more I can do to get this fixed faster.
Technical SEO | | kicksetc0 -
Canonical tag in preferred and duplicate page
Hi, I have a super spiffy (not) CMS that tends to create some pages at the root level of the site (not where I want it) i.e. www.site.com/page.htm as well as the desired location i.e. www.site.com/category/keyword/page.htm . Now obviously a canonical tag inserted into the URL at the undesired location would be the best option, however the source code is exactly the same for both pages (can’t change this) i.e. if I put the canonical tag that reads www.site.com/category/keyword/page.htm"/> it will appear in the head section of both pages, the desired URL and the non desired URL. Will a canonical tag inserted into the head section of a the preferred URL directing the search engine spiders pretty much to itself cause more grieft than the solution it offers re duplicate content ? Marc
Technical SEO | | NRMA0