Canonical Links Best Practices

Canonical linking is a great way to avoid penalties for duplicate content on your site while ensuring you retain all ranking factors from the same pages. The same content on your site usually isn’t intentional, but it always happens. We’ll review the best practices for building canonical links and a few things to avoid when dealing with them. With our help, you can ensure that only the original versions of pages are indexed and ranked in Google while retaining inbound links that may have been given to duplicate versions. If you’re entirely new to canonical links, read our blog post on them and what they mean for SEO to understand them better.

The Dos and Don’ts of Canonical Linking

The rel=canonical tag is quickly becoming the easiest way to redirect search engines to the original version of a page while still keeping all the ranking factors of the duplicate page. Users can still visit and link to the old page. Still, when search engines follow those links to duplicate pages, the canonical tag tells them, “Don’t rank this page; rank this other page over here instead, and I want all of the authority of this duplicate page attributed to the original as well.” Building these links helps search engines avoid confusion when deciding which page to rank, which helps with your rankings.

Canonical Linking vs. 301 Redirects

Canonical links and 301 redirects do similar things. Still, the downside is that a 301 redirect won’t let someone access a duplicate or old version of a page. If you want your users to access old versions of your pages for whatever reason, canonical links will refer all the authority of the old page to the new one while still allowing users to access the old content.

Avoid No Indexing Duplicate Content When Possible.

While no indexing may solve some duplicate content problems, it creates other ones, according to Moz. For example, when you index a page, search engines can no longer view that content. Still, they can no longer read any ranking signals on that page. That means any inbound links or shares of the duplicate page are lost instead of contributing to the original page. Avoid this by building canonical links or 301 redirects instead. They’ll solve your same content woes while retaining all valuable aspects of those extra pages.

Feel a Little Confused? Enlist Professional Help

If you’ve received the dreaded duplicate content or thin content warning on your site and you’re having trouble getting it fixed, then it’s time to call in some help. A professional SEO company like us here at Contractor Advertising can build your canonical links and 301 redirects, so you never have to worry about your rankings being harmed. With professional service, you can focus on running your business rather than chasing around Google warnings.

Looking for help in California? Well, then check out our friends over at Dial One Sonshine! They provide top-notch Orange County plumbing and HVAC services throughout the area!