What Are The Do's and Don'ts of Using Google Canonical Tags?

byBrendaMZ

7.5K followers

Updated 8 months ago

Hi Everyone!

I want to share some of my mistakes about Google Canonical Tags. Honestly, I was initially unaware of their purpose. After indexing my articles on Google Search Console, I noticed some were labeled as "discovered" and "crawled" but not indexed.

What I am referring to is this screenshot.

Some will have words like

domain name/article name/feed (you can ignore those.) Those will also be discovered as well those URLs with /feed do not get indexed

Upon further investigation, I found that the previously indexed article now appeared as a canonical tag for another URL. It left me feeling confused and unsure of its significance.

I studied a topic, found my mistakes, and learned from them. Let me teach you how to improve your website's SEO by implementing canonical tags effectively.

What is Google Canonical Tags?

Google Canonical Tags inform search engines about the preferred URL for indexing a webpage, avoiding duplicate content issues. This helps consolidate similar pages, directing search engines to the primary version. This safeguards your website's organic search rankings from being diluted by duplicate content and enhances user experience by directing them to the most relevant and high-quality page.

• Inform Search Engine of the Preferred URL: Canonical Tags tell search engines which URL to index as the primary one. This avoids duplicate content issues and prevents similar pages from competing for rankings.
• Prevent Duplicate Content Issues: Duplicate content can harm your website's SEO by dividing traffic and authority. Google penalizes it as an attempt to manipulate rankings. Use canonical tags to consolidate all page versions into one primary version and prevent issues with duplicate content.
• Improve Website Indexing and Rankings: Canonical tags guide search engines to the primary version of a webpage, streamlining your website's indexing process. It will improve your website's chances of being correctly indexed and ranked, enhancing your SEO strategy.
• Avoid Confusion for Users: Multiple versions of the same page can confuse users. Use canonical tags to direct all users to the primary version, ensuring a consistent user experience.

DO's for using Google Canonical Tags

You can take several key steps to optimize your SEO strategy using Google canonical tags. Thorough keyword research is vital to determining which pages should apply canonical tags, which will designate the preferred version for search engines. It is also essential to maintain consistent and relevant URLs throughout your website. This helps to avoid confusion for both search engine crawlers and users.

• Ensure Comprehensive Keyword Research: Conduct thorough keyword research to implement Google canonical tags properly. Identify the standard terms and phrases users search for about your content. Choose keywords that accurately represent your page's topic and purpose.
• Use consistent, relevant URLs: Consistency is critical when using Google canonical tags. One crucial aspect is to ensure that the URLs referenced in your canonical tags are appropriate and consistent throughout your website. Using different or unrelated URLs can confuse search engines and defeat the purpose of using these tags.
• Utilize proper syntax and placement: Optimal SEO performance requires correct implementation of Google canonical tags. Please place them in the head section of your HTML document if you can.

DON'Ts for using Google Canonical Tags

The most common error with Google canonical tags is adding multiple tags to a single page. It can confuse search engines and reduce the intended canonical signal, causing problems with indexing.

It's vital to choose only one authoritative URL for each page.

My experiences: I published two articles with similar keywords the same day, and Google created a canonical tag for one article. The first was "niche growth," and the second was "niche tips.." Google wanted the niche tip to go to the niche growth article. A niche growth article is now a canonical tag. To resolve this, I rewrote the article about niche growth to make it unique and distinct from the one about niche tips. I also changed the article's title and published it as new. Now, the canonical tag is no longer there.

• Don't Use Multiple Canonical Tags On One Page: Multiple canonical tags on a single page can confuse search engines about which URL to prioritize for your content, reducing the effectiveness of the canonical tag.
• Avoid Using Self-Referencing Canonical Tags: To use Google canonical tags effectively, avoid self-referencing canonical tags. These tags should not link back to the same page, as this can confuse search engines and defeat the purpose of using them.
• Do Not Ignore Redirects: Ignoring redirects when using Google Canonical Tags can cause significant SEO issues. Redirects maintain link equity and ensure the correct URL is used. Hence, paying attention to redirects while implementing canonical tags is essential. If the canonical tag points to a redirected URL, search engines may get confused, and your ranking may suffer.
  

Final Thoughts

Google canonical tags are essential for successful SEO. Follow dos and don'ts to ensure search engines understand your content hierarchy and avoid duplicate content issues. Do proper keyword research and use consistent and relevant URLs. Ensure you do not publish similar keywords so close to each other. Keep them separated and unique. Use a proper permalink so Google won't make it a canonical tag URL. Avoid multiple canonical tags on one page and self-referencing canonical tags. Remember never to ignore redirects. If you follow these practices, it will boost your website's visibility and rankings.

-BrendaMZ

PS: Have you experienced "canonical tags" after Google chose to fix one to make it different from the other? Sometimes, you do not need to fix it. Let them decide, but I fix one to make it different. Problem solved.,