Canonical link element in the HTML is used to remove duplicate URL’s in your website. Canonical link or URL helps search engine to know which is master URL for your post.
Imagine if you are having multiple URL for your website, like:
https: //moonshotcentral.com
http: //moonshotcentral.com
https: //moonshotcentral.com/main-index
https: //moonshotcentral.com/index
Since search engine keep indexing your website from time to time. It is difficult for search engine to identify which is current version or which is the main page. For a search engine these are four different pages although all will open same page. The multiple URL’s can be for many reason and its very common in a CMS system like WordPress.
One thing we should understand that search engine is not human and cannot assume things like we do. Computer works on definite command and we need to tell them what how they should function.
So how to deal with this problem ?
It is very easy to deal with this issue of duplication. All we need to do is to use <link rel=”canonical”> tag in HTML to tell the search engines your preferred URL for a particular page or post. So when you put this link tag in the HTML page then Search Engines know which URL is original and ignore other URL’s.
How to use the canonical link in HTML ?
<link rel=”canonical” href=” https://moonshotcentral.com/” />
Where to use it ?
You should use the canonical link tag in the head tag of the HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<link rel=”canonical” href=” https://moonshotcentral.com/” />
</head>
<body>
…
</body>
</html>
How to do in WordPress, easy way?
Most of the bloggers are using WordPress and are not familiar with HTML. In WordPress this can be done using Yoast SEO Plugin.
In the above example, you need to click on the gear button in Yoast SEO setting (this is below to your post) and there you can put the master URL for that particular page or post. That’s it.
Compatibility with Search Engines
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft announced support for the canonical link element. Basically is now standard tag which is recognized by all search engines.
Now, the most important question. Does Canonical Tag improves search ranking ?
Yes. It is obvious if search engines find duplicate content over the period of time, they will not find your website authentic. There would be cases where search engines will show irrelevant URL if Canonical Tag element is not used. Using Canonical tag you are telling you preference to search engine that which URL they should index.
