Why Google Chooses a Different Canonical Tag: Understanding the Reasons Behind Canonical URL Ignorance

Canonical tags are HTML elements that are used to specify the canonical (preferred) URL for a webpage. They are important for optimizing SEO and ensuring that search engines understand the relationship between different versions of a page.

Canonical tags are important for SEO because they help search engines understand which version of a webpage should be considered the authoritative version. By indicating the preferred URL, canonical tags can consolidate the ranking signals of different versions of the same page, avoiding duplicate content issues and improving the overall search engine visibility of the page.

To implement canonical tags, you need to add a <link> element in the HTML head section of your webpage. The <link> element should include the attribute rel=”canonical” and the attribute href with the canonical URL you want to specify. For example: <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.example.com/destination-url”>

Some common canonical tag errors to avoid include: – Using the wrong URL as the canonical URL. – Forgetting to add the <link> element in the HTML head section. – Adding multiple canonical tags to the same page. – Using self-referencing canonical tags that point to the page itself. – Using relative URLs instead of absolute URLs in the canonical tag.

Search engines use canonical tags to understand the relationship between different versions of a webpage. When they encounter a canonical tag, they will prioritize crawling and indexing the canonical URL indicated in the tag, ensuring that the ranking signals and content relevance are properly attributed to the preferred version of the page.

Yes, you can use cross-domain canonical tags to indicate the original version of a webpage on a different domain. This can be useful when you have duplicated content across multiple domains or subdomains and want to consolidate the ranking signals into a single canonical URL. However, it is important to ensure that the cross-domain canonical implementation is correct and that both domains have the necessary access and permissions to implement the canonical tags.

You can check if your canonical tags are working correctly by inspecting the source code of your webpage and looking for the <link rel=”canonical” href=”…”> element. Additionally, you can also use SEO auditing tools or search engine webmaster tools to check if the search engines have recognized and processed the canonical tags correctly.

No, you should avoid having multiple canonical tags within a single webpage. Each webpage should have only one canonical URL specified in the <link rel=”canonical” href=”…”> element. Having multiple canonical tags can confuse search engines and may result in the incorrect attribution of ranking signals and content relevance.

The canonical tag tells search engines which page to prioritize by specifying the preferred URL with the href attribute. When search engines encounter a canonical tag, they will understand that the indicated URL should be considered the canonical URL, and they will prioritize crawling, indexing, and ranking that URL over other versions of the same page.

Yes, several URLs can use the same canonical tag pointing to the preferred URL to avoid duplicate content. Product pages with different versions are great examples of it.

Yes, you can edit the canonical tag after a webpage is indexed by search engines. However, it is important to ensure that the changes are made carefully and follow best practices. Updating the canonical tag may indicate to search engines that there has been a change in the preferred URL, and they may reprocess the page accordingly.