A canonical URL is the preferred version of a specific webpage. It represents the original or primary content source to avoid duplicate content issues. With canonical URLs, search engines understand which URL should be considered authoritative by consolidating ranking signals.
What is Canonical URL?
A canonical URL is a special HTML link found in the <head> section of a webpage. It includes a ‘rel=canonical’ attribute, also known as a canonical tag. This tag guides search engines to identify which is the original or main version of a webpage.
That’s what a canonical URL looks like 👇
SS 1: What is a canonical URL
With 6amTech, you can now set up the best canonical URL for your eCommerce site right from the admin panel without having to code.
Setting Canonical URLs into 6amTech Products
If you’re using 6amTech’s eCommerce solutions, you’ll find the canonical URL settings available in the admin panel. In this section, we’re going to demonstrate how to set up canonical URLs in one of 6amTech’s products- 6Valley.
So let’s get started.
Step 1: Choose the page which URL you want to add as a canonical URL
SS 1: 6Valley User Website (Default Theme)
Step 2: Log in to your 6valley Admin panel In this tutorial
demonstration, we’re using the 6Valley demo admin panel. You’ll find the feature in the same process if you already own the paid version of 6Valley multi vendor eCommerce CMS.
SS 2: 6Valley demo admin panel log in interface
Step 3: Go to System Settings
You’ll find the ‘Basic SEO’ settings under the ‘Business Setup’ section. Go to the ‘Robots Meta Content’ tab from there and enter your Canonical URL.
SS 3: (Path: 6Valley Admin Panel> System Settings> Business Setup> Basic SEO> Robots Meta Content)
Step 4: Click ‘Submit’ to save the changes.
SS 4: Click ‘Submit’ to save the changes
Importance of Canonical URL
- Prevent duplicate content
Most eCommerce sites face the duplicate content issue. Adding appropriate canonical URLs will help you avoid confusing search engines between similar pages. For instance, take the category page into account.
For example- you have an electronics eCommerce website where you sell smartwatches, phones, appliances, etc. So, there are multiple product categories that you need to manage under one page. For the smartphones category, the canonical URLs should be like this: 👇
https://www.yourecommerce.com/categories/smarphones/, and https://www.yourecommerce.com/categories/smarphones/page-2/
These two URLs are for the same page of your eCommerce site, which is ‘smartphones.’
- Consolidate SEO signals
Implementing canonical URLs helps search engines understand which page or URL is unique/authentic/original and which one to rank. By specifying a canonical URL, website owners can ensure that SEO signals (such as backlinks, authority, and relevance) are attributed to a single version of the page.
- Improve crawl efficiency
Canonical URLs indicate to search engine crawlers the preferred version of a page so they don’t spend time on duplicate content. This enhances the crawl budget and apparently leads to frequent indexing.
How to Set Canonical URLs Manually?
Setting canonical URLs manually involves adding a canonical link element to the HTML code of a webpage. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
- Identify the Preferred URL: Determine which URL you want to designate as the canonical URL for the webpage. This should be the URL that you want search engines to index and rank.
- Access the HTML Code: Open the HTML code of the webpage for which you want to set the canonical URL. Just right-clicking on the webpage, select “View Page Source” or “Inspect,” and locate the <head> section of the HTML code.
- Add the Canonical Link Element: Within the <head> section of the HTML code, add the following line of code:
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.yourecommerce.com/yourpreferred-url">Replace “https://www.yourecommerce.com/yourpreferred-url” with the actual URL of the preferred version of the webpage.
- Save Changes: After adding the canonical link element to the HTML code, save your changes.
- Verify Implementation: Once you’ve saved the changes, verify that the canonical URL is set up correctly by accessing the webpage in a web browser and viewing the page source. You should see the canonical link element in the <head> section of the HTML code.
- Test the Setup: Use tools like Google’s Search Console or third-party SEO auditing tools to check for any canonicalization issues or inconsistencies. These tools can help ensure that search engines recognize and respect the canonical URL you’ve specified.
By following these steps, you can manually set canonical URLs for web pages and improve ranking signals and prevent duplicate content issues.
Canonical URLs Best Practices
Here are some best practices for canonical URLs, along with examples and demonstrations where necessary:
- Choose the Preferred URL: Select the URL you want to designate as the canonical URL for a webpage. This should be the most relevant and representative URL for the content. For example: If you have a product page with multiple URL variations (e.g., with or without trailing slashes, with or without “www.”), choose one version as the canonical URL. For instance:
Canonical URL: https://www.example.com/product/blue-shirt
- Use Absolute URLs: Always use absolute URLs in canonical link elements to ensure clarity and consistency for search engines. If you look at the example here: <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.example.com/product/blue-shirt”>
- Implement on All Versions: Add canonical link elements to all webpage versions to consistently indicate the preferred URL. If a webpage is accessible via HTTP and HTTPS, include the canonical link element in both versions of the page’s HTML code.
- Avoid Self-Referential Canonicals: Do not use a webpage’s canonical URL as its own.
For example-
<!-- Incorrect: Self-referential canonical →
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/product/blue-shirt">- Handle Pagination Properly: When dealing with paginated content, ensure that each page in the series has a canonical URL pointing to the first page. Such as this- <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.example.com/category/widgets”>
- Update Dynamically Generated Pages: If your website generates pages dynamically (e.g., through parameters in the URL), ensure that the canonical URL is also dynamically generated.
- Regularly Monitor and Update: Periodically review and update canonical URLs as needed, especially after significant website structure or content changes.
Conclusion
Setting up the canonical URLs for your eCommerce website is now a breeze with 6amTech’s eCommerce solutions. We hope this knowledgebase will help you understand how canonical URLs work and how you can manually set them up for all the web pages of your online store.
