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A Canonical Link Element is an HTML tag used in SEO to indicate the preferred version of a web page when there are multiple pages with similar or duplicate content. It helps search engines understand which URL to index and rank, preventing duplicate content issues and consolidating ranking signals to the chosen canonical URL.
Synonyms: canonical tag, rel canonical, canonical URL tag, canonical link tag
The canonical link element is crucial for SEO because it prevents duplicate content problems that can confuse search engines. When multiple URLs have the same or very similar content, search engines might split ranking signals between them, which can hurt your site's overall search performance. Using a canonical link element tells search engines which version of the page to prioritize, improving your site's SEO effectiveness.
The canonical link element is placed in the section of a webpage's HTML code. It looks like this: <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/preferred-page" />. This tag points to the preferred URL that you want search engines to index. It is especially useful for e-commerce sites with product pages accessible via multiple URLs or for sites with similar content across different pages.
For example, if you have a product page accessible at both https://www.example.com/product?color=red and https://www.example.com/product?color=blue, you can use a canonical link element on both pages pointing to https://www.example.com/product as the preferred URL. This tells search engines to treat the main product page as the authoritative source.
