Canonical URL

DefinitionA canonical URL is the version of a page you want search engines to treat as the main one when the same content is available at several URLs.

You declare it with <link rel="canonical" href="…"> in the page head. Search engines treat it as a strong hint, not a command, and may choose a different canonical if other signals disagree. Consistent canonicals, internal links and sitemap entries reduce duplicate content.

Learn it step by step

• Check one page with the SEO analyzer (SEO audits)
• Crawl your site with Site audit (SEO audits)

Related terms

• XML sitemap: An XML sitemap is a file that lists the URLs on your site you want search engines to discover and crawl, optionally with the date each was last changed.
• Keyword cannibalisation: Keyword cannibalisation is when several pages on your own site compete for the same search query, so none of them performs as well as one strong page would.
• Internal link: An internal link is a link from one page on your site to another page on the same site.