{"id":96880,"date":"2012-09-20T11:00:47","date_gmt":"2012-09-20T15:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.org\/?p=96880"},"modified":"2022-03-22T03:22:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T03:22:06","slug":"wordpress-canonicalization-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wordpress-canonicalization-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress Canonicalization Made Simple With SmartCrawl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ignorance is most definitely <em>not<\/em> bliss when it comes to the world of SEO. In this article, we address a relatively simple search ranking element that many WordPress users overlook.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to maximize your rankings in Google (and ensure that you are not penalized), you must take ownership of every element of SEO &#8212; from your link profile to your onsite optimization, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>This can seem unfair for beginners &#8212; after all, how are <em>you<\/em>\u00a0supposed to know what to do? The simple answer is that you can&#8217;t know.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>productive<\/em> answer is that while you can&#8217;t know, you need to learn.<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, today I want to address one relatively simple element of SEO that many WordPress users do not even consider &#8212; canonicalization.<\/p>\n<p>It isn&#8217;t particularly glamorous, but it <em>is<\/em>\u00a0important, and you have no excuse not to get it right.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what we\u2019re going to cover today:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#what-is-a-canonical-page\">What is a Canonical Page?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#how-to-set-a-canonical-url\">How to Set a Canonical URL?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"what-is-a-canonical-page\">What is a Canonical Page?<\/h2>\n<p>I can&#8217;t put it better than Google:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A canonical page is the preferred version of a set of pages with highly similar content.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To explain the purpose of canonical pages, we must first explore the issue of duplicate pages.<\/p>\n<p>For example, try accessing your site in the following ways:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>https:\/\/yoursite.com\/<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.yoursite.com\/<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You will find that both methods work. Another example would be any web page that has modifiers added to the end of the URL.<\/p>\n<p>You could have an eCommerce site where the exact same product page can be found across various different URLs, depending on how filters are set and so on.<\/p>\n<p>The problem\u00a0with these multiple instances of the same content is that Google will probably index most (if not all) of the pages on your site.<\/p>\n<p><em>Then,<\/em> it has to decide which one it thinks is the correct page to push up through the rankings.<\/p>\n<p>It would be far more preferable if you could help Google to understand which pages are carbon copies of each other so that they can selectively index only what is necessary.<\/p>\n<p>That is where canonicalization comes in &#8212; you tell Google which is the preferred page for indexing and ranking.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_195334\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-195334\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/SmartCrawlMaryPoppins.png\" alt=\"SmartCrawl-Super Canonicalization Expialadocious\" width=\"600\" height=\"408\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Canonicalization is not sesquipedalianism.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"how-to-set-a-canonical-url\">How to Set a Canonical URL?<\/h2>\n<p>Please note that you never really have full control over what Google does and doesn&#8217;t index (unless you go down the &#8220;<a title=\"Using meta tags to block access to your site\" href=\"http:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/bin\/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=93710\" target=\"_blank\">noindex<\/a>&#8221; or manual URL removal route).<\/p>\n<p>Good canonicalization is about demonstrating to Google what\u00a0version of a page <em>you<\/em>\u00a0think they should prioritize in their index.<\/p>\n<p>Their algorithms will then take that suggestion into account when assessing your site&#8217;s pages.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note:<\/em> It used to be that you could specify your preferred domain setting. Then Google switched to their new Search Console experience and <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2019\/06\/bye-bye-preferred-domain-setting\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">actually said goodbye to the preferred domain setting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You can still tell Google your preference in several ways, but if not, Google will pick the best option.<\/p>\n<p>With the above in mind, there are three things that a WordPress user should do to ensure that their site is correctly optimized in terms of canonicalization.<\/p>\n<h3>1. Verify the Homepage&#8217;s Canonical URL in WordPress Settings<\/h3>\n<p>The first thing you need to do is make a decision as to whether your site should primarily be accessed via &#8220;https:\/\/&#8221;, or &#8220;https:\/\/www&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>You do this by setting the WordPress Address in General Settings.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-194242\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/General-settings.png\" alt=\"WordPress general settings.\" width=\"693\" height=\"311\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Indicate how you want your URL to go by in Settings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>WordPress will set up a 301 redirect from the &#8220;secondary&#8221; URL to your preferred canonical URL.<\/p>\n<p>So in the above example, if anyone tries to access your website via &#8220;https:\/\/www.example.com\/,&#8221; they will be automatically redirected to &#8220;https:\/\/example.com\/&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, any backlinks that point to a non-canonical URL will be automatically forwarded via the 301 redirect.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Verify the Homepage&#8217;s Canonical URL in Google Search Console<\/h3>\n<p>Next, you need to tell Google which URL you prefer. You do this by first <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2019\/02\/consolidating-your-website-traffic-on\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">adding your URLs<\/a> to <strong>Google Search Console<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Once your site is verified, you can see what the Google-selected canonical for your site is.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194239\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-ratio-full wp-image-194239\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Canocol-in-Google-1050x579.png\" alt=\"Google canonical\" width=\"1050\" height=\"579\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the Google Search Console, it shows you what the Google-selected canonical is.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As you can see, the User-declared canonical is the same as the Google-selected canonical.<\/p>\n<h3>3. Hide Redundant Canonical Link Tags On Your Site with SmartCrawl<\/h3>\n<p>This final step may sound a little daunting, but it is in fact the most straightforward and can be done in one-click.<\/p>\n<p>First, install and activate our 5-star rated SEO plugin, <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/smartcrawl-seo\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SmartCrawl<\/a> for free.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194254\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-194254\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/smartcrawl.png\" alt=\"SmartCrawl image.\" width=\"693\" height=\"261\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SmartCrawl is here to help you with your canonical link tags.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Once activated, navigate to the settings and simply click the <strong>Hide redundant canonical link tags<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194244\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-194244\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/hide-canocal-tags.png\" alt=\"hide redundant canonical tags.\" width=\"693\" height=\"311\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">All it takes is one-click.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That&#8217;s all you need to do! By clicking the switch over, you will avoid any possibly SEO content that&#8217;s a duplicate and keep your site from getting a backlash from search engines like Google.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note:<\/em> In addition to configuring the above, SmartCrawl also offers an in-post canonical URL option that lets you fine-tune canonicals on similar versions of posts or pages on a per-post\/page basis.<\/p>\n<p>To use this feature, go to the <strong>SmartCrawl &gt; Advanced<\/strong> tab in your post or page editor and enter the full canonical URL (including <code>http:\/\/<\/code> or <code>https:\/\/<\/code>) into the Canonical field.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_195359\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-195359\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/smartcrawl-canonical.png\" alt=\"SmartCrawl in-post canonical option.\" width=\"600\" height=\"518\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SmartCrawl&#8217;s in-post canonical option.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Canonicalization is Complete<\/h2>\n<p>As you can see, there&#8217;s not a lot of work to do when it comes to canonicalization.<\/p>\n<p>With just a few tweaks, adding your site to the Google Search Console, and with the help of <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/smartcrawl-seo\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SmartCrawl<\/a> &#8212; your site can continue to stay in good standings with the SERPs and is more SEO-friendly.<\/p>\n<p>And with that, canonicalization for your WordPress is complete.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Editor\u2019s Note:<\/em><\/strong><em> This post has been updated for accuracy and relevancy. [Originally Published: September 2012 \/ Revised: February 2021]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Make sure that you are getting one of the most oft-ignored elements of SEO right!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84405,"featured_media":197083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"blog_reading_time":"5","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_tutorials_categories":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[35],"tutorials_categories":[],"class_list":["post-96880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-seo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96880"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207763,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96880\/revisions\/207763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96880"},{"taxonomy":"tutorials_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorials_categories?post=96880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}