If you manage a website, you may have heard of the term "canonical URL." But is it mandatory to use...
Does every page need a canonical tag? A Beginners guide to SEO
If you manage a website, you may have heard of the term "canonical tag." But does every page on your website need a canonical tag? The short answer is no, not every page on your website needs a canonical tag. However, there are some situations where using a canonical tag can be beneficial.
What do Canonical Tags do?
A canonical tag is a way to tell search engines which version of a web page is the "main" or "preferred" one. This is important because sometimes a website can have multiple versions of the same page, each with a different URL. For example, a page might be accessible via both www.example.com/page and example.com/page.
Having multiple versions of the same page can create problems for search engines, as they have to decide which version to index and show in search results. This can lead to duplication and confusion, which can harm your website's ranking and visibility.
To avoid these problems, you can use a canonical tag to tell search engines which version of a page is the preferred one. This helps search engines understand which version to index and show in search results, and it also helps prevent duplication and confusion.
To use a canonical tag, you simply need to add a tag to the HTML of your web pages. The tag looks like this: <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/page" />. This tells search engines that the page with the URL https://www.example.com/page is the preferred version of the page.
So, does every page on your website need a canonical tag?
In most cases, the answer is no. If your website only has one version of each page, and all of your pages have unique and descriptive URLs, then you probably don't need to use canonical tags.
However, there are some situations where using canonical tags can be beneficial. For example, if you have multiple versions of the same page (e.g. with and without www), or if you have pages with similar or duplicate content, then using canonical tags can help search engines understand which version of the page is the preferred one. This can help improve your website's ranking and visibility in search results.
For a more in-depth look at canonical's, take a look at this Beginners Guide blog that looks at canonicals in more detail.
In Summary
In conclusion, while not every page on your website needs a canonical tag, there are some situations where using a canonical tag can be beneficial. If you have multiple versions of the same page, or if you have pages with similar or duplicate content, then using a canonical tag can help search engines understand which version of the page is the preferred one. This can help improve your website's ranking and visibility in search results.
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