A Canonical URL is the preferred web address that you want search engines to consider as the main version of a webpage when there are multiple URLs with similar or duplicate content. It helps prevent SEO issues caused by duplicate content by telling search engines which URL to index and rank.
Synonyms: preferred URL, canonical link, canonical address, canonical tag URL

Canonical URLs help avoid duplicate content problems that can confuse search engines and dilute your website's ranking power. By specifying a canonical URL, you consolidate ranking signals to a single page, improving your site's SEO performance.
Webmasters add a canonical link element in the HTML header of duplicate or similar pages pointing to the canonical URL. This signals to search engines which version of the page should be indexed and shown in search results.
If you have multiple URLs like https://example.com/page, https://www.example.com/page, and https://example.com/page?ref=123, you can set https://example.com/page as the canonical URL to indicate the main page.