Canonical Tags - Do they only apply to internal duplicate content?

[benj2034]

Hi Moz,

I've had a complaint from a company who we use a feed from to populate a restaurants product list.They are upset that on our products pages we have canonical tags linking back to ourselves. These are in place as we have international versions of the site.

They believe because they are the original source of content we need to canonical back to them.

Can I please confirm that canonical tags are purely an internal duplicate content strategy. Canonical isn't telling google that from all the content on the web that this is the original source. It's just saying that from the content on our domains, this is the original one that should be ranked. Is that correct?

Furthermore, if we implemented a canonical tag linking to Best Restaurants it would de-index all of our restaurants listings and pages and pass the authority of these pages to their site. Is this correct?

Thanks!

[AngelosS]

Quite a guide about canonicals from Google

And this one is a new guide from Yoast for canonicals which is pretty impressive.

Take a look.

Hope that helps.

[EGOL]

They believe because they are the original source of content we need to canonical back to them.

If they own the content, then it is their right to request this.  In my opinion, it is your ethical duty to comply if you want to use this content.   This requirement "should" be indicated as a condition of use at the location where you access the feed.  It may not be required of them to state it.  It would be a requirement of you to get permission.

It's just saying that from the content on our domains, this is the original one that should be ranked. Is that correct?

There are such things as cross-domain rel=canonical.  Joost de Valk just published a new guide to rel=canonical.  Joost is a really smart guy and he uses cross-domain rel=canonical a lot when his content is published on other websites.

Furthermore, if we implemented a canonical tag linking to Best Restaurants it would de-index all of our restaurants listings and pages and pass the authority of these pages to their site. Is this correct?

Yes, you are correct.  If you use rel=canonical and point it back to their domain then your pages will fall from the SERPs.   If you use their content, that is the price that they expect and have demanded.

If these people are a supplier of yours, it is best business practice to cultivate perfect relationships with them as they can cut you off as a reseller at whim, or take other actions against you or your website.  If they contact you and ask or tell you to implement the rel=canonical and you don't comply they could file DMCA complaints against you with Google, other search engines, your hosting company and any other location where their intellectual property is being used.  When DMCA complaints are filed Google usually removes the infringing pages from the search index within a few days. I filed them against over 100 domains last year and Google, Adsense, Wordpress, YouTube, Blogspot, and other places where content is posted took fast action on most of them - often in under 48 hours.

Best competitive practice for you would be to write unique content.  Even if this other company allows you to use their content then it will be in the index (not necessarily the SERPs) and  your site could suffer from publishing the duplication.  It is best competitive practice to have unique content on every one of your pages because Google hates dupe content in their SERPs and demotes or filters sites that have it.  In most (but not all) instances they know who owns the content and who is the copycat.