This is also commonly referred to as a canonical tag. It looks like this:
<link rel=”canonical” https://www.example.com />
The canonical tag is sometimes referred to as a hint because it’s just one canonicalization signal. Google ignores it if other signals are stronger.
If the canonical tag is respected, all signals like links will pass. However, if the canonical is ignored, no value is passed. The value isn’t lost; it stays with the original page or goes to whatever page Google chooses as the canonical.
A canonical link element can be implemented in two different ways. It can be in the <head> section or the HTTP header.
A fun anecdote. Google’s SEO Starter Guide used to be a PDF. It didn’t have a canonical tag set in the HTTP header, and people used to “steal” the listing with their own duplicate version.
recommended name is what makes affiliate marketing such a powerful pillar of digital marketing.
Here we’ll walk you through our whatsapp number list step-by-step guide to using affiliate marketing to reach more of your audience.
Sometimes the <head> section of a page will end before it should. This is usually caused by a tag in the <head> not closed out properly. When that happens, a canonical tag may be put into the <body> section instead. If that happens, your canonical tag won’t be respected.
Example of invalid canonical tag
Invalid canonical tag located in the <body> section.
Sitemap URLs
The URLs you include in your sitemap are also a canonicalization signal. Most of the time, you only want to include URLs of pages that you want to be indexed.
There are some exceptions to this because sitemap URLs also help with crawling. After a website migration, you should create a sitemap that still lists the old pages, even though they aren’t canonical. This will help the redirects be processed faster. You’ll want to delete this sitemap after most of the redirects have been picked up and processed.
Internal links
It matters how you link to pages. Internal links are another canonicalization signal.
Generally, you should link to the version of a page you want to be canonical and update the links to any URLs that may have changed. However, there are exceptions to this, such as with faceted navigation. In some cases like this, what is best for users may trump what is best for SEO.