как повысить SEO-оптимизацию сайта
ТОП 24 советов SEO оптимизации сайта - Plerdy
Во-первых, включение фрагмента схемы обзора на сайте, включающего звездочки обзора, может привести к повышению доверия и CTR. И, во-вторых ...
как Google называет это
Хотя технически это не наказание, дублированный контент все же может иногда влиять на рейтинг в поисковых системах. Когда есть несколько частей, <anchor>как Google называет это</anchor> , «заметно похожего» контента, в более чем одном месте в Интернете, для поисковых систем может быть трудно решить, какая версия больше соответствует данному поисковому запросу.
How to Specify a Canonical with rel="canonical" and Other Methods | Google Search Central  |  Documentation  |  Google for Developers
How to Specify a Canonical with rel="canonical" and Other Methods \| Google Search Central  \|  Documentation  \|  Google for Developers

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[Documentation](https://developers.google.com/search/docs)

- SEO fundamentals
- [Introduction](https://developers.google.com/search/docs)
- [Search Essentials](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials)
- [SEO Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide)
- [How Google Search Works](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/how-search-works)
- [Do you need an SEO?](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/do-i-need-seo)

- Crawling and indexing
- [Sitemaps](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview)
- [robots.txt](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro)
- [Meta tags](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/special-tags)
- [Crawler management](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/ask-google-to-recrawl)
- [Removals](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/control-what-you-share)
- [Canonicalization](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls)
- [Redirects](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects)
- [JavaScript SEO](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/javascript-seo-basics)

- Ranking and search appearance
- [Visual Elements gallery](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/visual-elements-gallery)
- [Title links](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/title-link)
- [Snippets](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet)
- [Images](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/google-images)
- [Videos](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/video)
- [Structured data](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/search-gallery)
- [Favicons](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/favicon-in-search)

- Site-specific guides
- [Ecommerce](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce)
- [International and multilingual sites](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international)

- Data analysis
- [Get started with Search Console](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-console-start)
- [Debug traffic drops](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/debugging-search-traffic-drops)
- [Improve SEO with a bubble chart](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/bubble-chart-analysis)

[Support](https://developers.google.com/search/help)[Blog](https://developers.google.com/search/blog)[What's new](https://developers.google.com/search/news)

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- [GoogleSearch Central](https://developers.google.com/search)

- [Documentation](/search/docs)  - More
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- [Introduction](/search/docs)
- Search Essentials



- [Overview](/search/docs/essentials)
- [Technical requirements](/search/docs/essentials/technical)
- [Spam policies](/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies)

- SEO fundamentals



- [SEO Starter Guide](/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide)
- [How Google Search works](/search/docs/fundamentals/how-search-works)
- [Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content](/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content)
- [Do you need an SEO?](/search/docs/fundamentals/do-i-need-seo)
- [Maintaining your site's SEO](/search/docs/fundamentals/get-started)
- [Developer's guide to Search](/search/docs/fundamentals/get-started-developers)
- [Get your website on Google](/search/docs/fundamentals/get-on-google)

- Crawling and indexing



- [Overview](/search/docs/crawling-indexing)
- [File types Google can index](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/indexable-file-types)
- [URL structure](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/url-structure)
- [Links](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable)
- Sitemaps



- [Learn about sitemaps](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview)
- [Build and submit a sitemap](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap)
- [Manage sitemaps with sitemap index file](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/large-sitemaps)
- Sitemap extensions



- [Image sitemaps](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/image-sitemaps)
- [News sitemaps](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/news-sitemap)
- [Video sitemaps and alternatives](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/video-sitemaps)
- [Combining sitemap extensions](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/combine-sitemap-extensions)

- Crawler management



- [Ask Google to recrawl your URLs](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/ask-google-to-recrawl)
- [Reduce the Googlebot crawl rate](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/reduce-crawl-rate)
- [Verifying Googlebot and other Google crawlers](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/verifying-googlebot)
- [Large site owner's guide to managing your crawl budget](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/large-site-managing-crawl-budget)
- [How HTTP status codes, and network and DNS errors affect Google Search](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/http-network-errors)
- Google crawlers



- [Overview](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/overview-google-crawlers)
- [Googlebot](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/googlebot)
- [Google Read Aloud](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/read-aloud-user-agent)
- [APIs-Google](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/apis-user-agent)
- [Feedfetcher](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/feedfetcher)

- robots.txt



- [Introduction to robots.txt](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro)
- [How to write and submit a robots.txt file](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/create-robots-txt)
- [Update your robots.txt file](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/submit-updated-robots-txt)
- [How Google interprets the robots.txt specification](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/robots_txt)

- Canonicalization



- [What is URL canonicalization](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/canonicalization)
- [How to specify a canonical URL with rel="canonical" and other methods](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls)
- [Fix canonicalization issues](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/canonicalization-troubleshooting)

- [Mobile site and mobile-first indexing](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/mobile/mobile-sites-mobile-first-indexing)
- AMP



- [AMP on Google Search guidelines](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/amp)
- [Understand how AMP works in search results](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/amp/about-amp)
- [Enhance AMP content](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/amp/enhance-amp)
- [Validate AMP content](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/amp/validate-amp)
- [Remove AMP content](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/amp/remove-amp)

- JavaScript



- [Understand the JavaScript SEO basics](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/javascript-seo-basics)
- [Fix search-related JavaScript problems](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/fix-search-javascript)
- [Fix lazy-loaded content](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/lazy-loading)
- [Dynamic rendering as a workaround](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/dynamic-rendering)

- Page and content metadata



- [Page metadata](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/valid-page-metadata)
- Meta tags



- [Meta tags and HTML attributes that Google supports](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/special-tags)
- [Robots meta tag, data-nosnippet, and X-Robots-Tag](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots-meta-tag)
- [noindex](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/block-indexing)
- [SafeSearch](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/safesearch)

- [rel attributes](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/qualify-outbound-links)

- Removals



- [Control what you share with Google](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/control-what-you-share)
- [Page removals](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/remove-information)
- [Image removals](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/prevent-images-on-your-page)
- [Redacted information](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/keep-redacted-information-out)

- Site moves and changes



- [Redirects and Google Search](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects)
- Site moves



- [Changing your hosting](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-no-url-changes)
- [Move a site with URL changes](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes)

- [A/B testing](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/website-testing)
- [Temporarily pause or disable a website](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/pause-online-business)

- Ranking and search appearance



- [Overview](/search/docs/appearance)
- [AI overviews](/search/docs/appearance/ai-overviews)
- [Byline dates](/search/docs/appearance/publication-dates)
- [Favicons](/search/docs/appearance/favicon-in-search)
- [Featured snippets](/search/docs/appearance/featured-snippets)
- [Flexible Sampling](/search/docs/appearance/flexible-sampling)
- [Google Discover](/search/docs/appearance/google-discover)
- [Images](/search/docs/appearance/google-images)
- Local features



- [Business details](/search/docs/appearance/establish-business-details)
- [Top Places List](/search/docs/appearance/top-places-list)
- [Opting out of local search results](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/3035947)

- Page experience



- [Understanding page experience](/search/docs/appearance/page-experience)
- [Core Web Vitals](/search/docs/appearance/core-web-vitals)
- [Interstitials and dialogs](/search/docs/appearance/avoid-intrusive-interstitials)
- [Get started with signed exchanges on Google Search](/search/docs/appearance/signed-exchange)

- Ranking systems



- [A guide to Google Search ranking systems](/search/docs/appearance/ranking-systems-guide)
- [Reviews system](/search/docs/appearance/reviews-system)

- [Site names](/search/docs/appearance/site-names)
- [Sitelinks](/search/docs/appearance/sitelinks)
- [Snippets](/search/docs/appearance/snippet)
- Structured data



- [Understand how structured data works](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data)
- [Structured data general guidelines](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sd-policies)
- [Enriched search results](/search/docs/appearance/enriched-search-results)
- [Generate structured data with JavaScript](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/generate-structured-data-with-javascript)
- Feature guides



- [All structured data features](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/search-gallery)
- [Article](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/article)
- [Book actions](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/book)
- [Breadcrumb](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/breadcrumb)
- [Carousel](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/carousel)
- [Course info](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/course-info)
- [Course list](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/course)
- [Dataset](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/dataset)
- [Discussion forum](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/discussion-forum)
- [Education Q&A](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/education-qa)
- [Employer aggregate rating](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/employer-rating)
- [Estimated salary](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/estimated-salary)
- [Event](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/event)
- [Fact check](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/factcheck)
- [FAQ](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/faqpage)
- [Image metadata](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/image-license-metadata)
- [Job posting](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/job-posting)
- [Learning video](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/learning-video)
- [Local business](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/local-business)
- [Math solver](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/math-solvers)
- [Movie carousel](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/movie)
- [Organization](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/organization)
- [Practice problem](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/practice-problems)
- Product



- [Overview](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product)
- [Product snippet](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product-snippet)
- [Merchant listing](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/merchant-listing)
- [Variants](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product-variants)

- [Profile page](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/profile-page)
- [Q&A](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/qapage)
- [Recipe](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/recipe)
- [Review snippet](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/review-snippet)
- [Sitelinks search box](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sitelinks-searchbox)
- [Software app](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/software-app)
- [Speakable](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/speakable)
- [Special announcement](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/special-announcements)
- [Subscription and paywalled content](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/paywalled-content)
- [Vacation rental](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/vacation-rental)
- [Vehicle listing](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/vehicle-listing)
- [Video](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/video)

- [Title links](/search/docs/appearance/title-link)
- Translated features



- [Translated results](/search/docs/appearance/translated-results)
- [Ad networks and translation-related Google Search features](/search/docs/appearance/ad-network-and-translation)

- [Videos](/search/docs/appearance/video)
- [Visual Elements gallery](/search/docs/appearance/visual-elements-gallery)
- Web Stories



- [Enable Web Stories on Google](/search/docs/appearance/enable-web-stories)
- [Best practices for creating Web Stories](/search/docs/appearance/web-stories-creation-best-practices)
- [Web Story content policy](/search/docs/appearance/web-stories-content-policy)

- Early Adopters Program



- [Package tracking](/search/docs/appearance/package-tracking)
- [Structured data carousels (beta)](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/carousels-beta)

- Monitoring and debugging



- [Debug drops in Search traffic](/search/docs/monitor-debug/debugging-search-traffic-drops)
- Monitor with Search Console



- [Get started with Search Console](/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-console-start)
- [Improve SEO with a bubble chart](/search/docs/monitor-debug/bubble-chart-analysis)

- Debug with search operators



- [Overview](/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators)
- [site: search operator](/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators/all-search-site)
- [cache: search operator](/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators/web-search-cache)
- [Google Images search operators](/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators/image-search)

- Preventing and monitoring abuse



- [Overview](/search/docs/monitor-debug/security)
- [Prevent user-generated spam](/search/docs/monitor-debug/prevent-abuse)
- [Malware and unwanted software](/search/docs/monitor-debug/security/malware)
- [Prevent a malware infection](/search/docs/monitor-debug/security/prevent-malware)
- [Social engineering (phishing and deceptive sites)](/search/docs/monitor-debug/security/social-engineering)
- [Google Safe Browsing Repeat Offenders Policy](/search/docs/monitor-debug/security/safe-browsing-repeat-offenders)

- Site-specific guides



- Ecommerce



- [Overview](/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce)
- [Where content can appear](/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/where-ecommerce-data-can-appear-on-google)
- [Share product data](/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/share-your-product-data-with-google)
- [Include structured data](/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/include-structured-data-relevant-to-ecommerce)
- [Launch a new website](/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/how-to-launch-an-ecommerce-website)
- [Write high quality reviews](/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/write-high-quality-reviews)
- [Design a URL structure](/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/designing-a-url-structure-for-ecommerce-sites)
- [Ecommerce site structure](/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/help-google-understand-your-ecommerce-site-structure)
- [Pagination, incremental page loading, and Search](/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/pagination-and-incremental-page-loading)

- International and multilingual



- [Overview](/search/docs/specialty/international)
- [Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites](/search/docs/specialty/international/managing-multi-regional-sites)
- [Tell Google about localized versions of your page](/search/docs/specialty/international/localized-versions)
- [How Google crawls locale-adaptive pages](/search/docs/specialty/international/locale-adaptive-pages)

- SEO fundamentals

- [Introduction](/search/docs)
- [Search Essentials](/search/docs/essentials)
- [SEO Starter Guide](/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide)
- [How Google Search Works](/search/docs/fundamentals/how-search-works)
- [Do you need an SEO?](/search/docs/fundamentals/do-i-need-seo)
- Crawling and indexing

- [Sitemaps](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview)
- [robots.txt](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro)
- [Meta tags](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/special-tags)
- [Crawler management](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/ask-google-to-recrawl)
- [Removals](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/control-what-you-share)
- [Canonicalization](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls)
- [Redirects](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects)
- [JavaScript SEO](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/javascript-seo-basics)
- Ranking and search appearance

- [Visual Elements gallery](/search/docs/appearance/visual-elements-gallery)
- [Title links](/search/docs/appearance/title-link)
- [Snippets](/search/docs/appearance/snippet)
- [Images](/search/docs/appearance/google-images)
- [Videos](/search/docs/appearance/video)
- [Structured data](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/search-gallery)
- [Favicons](/search/docs/appearance/favicon-in-search)
- Site-specific guides

- [Ecommerce](/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce)
- [International and multilingual sites](/search/docs/specialty/international)
- Data analysis

- [Get started with Search Console](/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-console-start)
- [Debug traffic drops](/search/docs/monitor-debug/debugging-search-traffic-drops)
- [Improve SEO with a bubble chart](/search/docs/monitor-debug/bubble-chart-analysis)

- [All updates](/search/news)
- [Documentation updates](/search/updates)
- [Ranking updates](https://status.search.google.com/products/rGHU1u87FJnkP6W2GwMi/history)
- [New YouTube videos](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWf2ZlNsCGDS89VBF_awNvA)
- [Recent podcast episodes](https://pod.link/1512522198)

**We're now on LinkedIn**: For news and resources from Google Search on making your site discoverable, [follow us on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/googlesearchcentral/).


- [Home](https://developers.google.com/)
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# How to specify a canonical URL with rel="canonical" and other methods

To specify a [canonical URL](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/canonicalization) for
duplicate or very similar pages to Google Search, you can indicate your preference using a
number of methods. These are, in order of how strongly they can influence canonicalization:

- [**Redirects**](#redirects-method): A strong signal that the target
of the redirect should become canonical.

- [**`rel="canonical"` `link` annotations**](#rel-canonical-link-method):
A strong signal that the specified URL should become canonical.

- [**Sitemap inclusion**](#sitemap-method): A weak signal that helps
the URLs that are included in a sitemap become canonical.


Keep in mind that these methods can stack and thus become more effective when combined.
This means that when you use two or more of the methods, that will increase the chance
of your preferred canonical URL appearing in search results.

While we encourage you to use these methods, none of them are required; your
site will likely do just fine without specifying a canonical preference. That's because
if you don't specify a canonical URL,
[Google will identify which version of the URL is objectively the best version to show to users in Search](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/canonicalization#canonical-how).

**If you use a CMS, such as WordPress, Wix, or Blogger**, you might not be able to
edit your HTML directly. Instead, your CMS might have a search engine settings page
or some other mechanism to tell search engines about the canonical URL. Search for
instructions about modifying the `<head>` of your page on your CMS
(for example, search for "wordpress set the canonical element").

## Reasons to specify a canonical URL

While it's generally not critical to specify a canonical preference for your URLs, there
are a number of reasons why you would want to explicitly tell Google about a canonical
page in a set of duplicate or similar pages:

- **To specify which URL that you want people to see in search results.**
You might prefer people to reach your green dresses product page through
`https://www.example.com/dresses/green/greendress.html` rather than
`https://example.com/dresses/cocktail?gclid=ABCD`.

- **To consolidate signals for similar or duplicate pages.** It helps
search engines to be able to consolidate the signals they have for the individual
URLs (such as links to them) into a single, preferred URL. This means that signals
from other sites to `https://example.com/dresses/cocktail?gclid=ABCD` get
consolidated with links to
`https://www.example.com/dresses/green/greendress.html` if the latter
becomes canonical.

- **To simplify tracking metrics for a piece of content.** With a variety
of URLs, it can be more challenging for you to get consolidated metrics for a
specific piece of content.

- **To avoid spending crawling time on duplicate pages.** You may want
Googlebot to get the most out of your site, so it's better for it to spend time
crawling new (or updated) pages on your site, rather than crawling duplicate
versions of the same content.


## Best practices

For all canonicalization methods, follow these best practices:

- **Don't** use the robots.txt file for canonicalization purposes.

- **Don't** use the URL removal tool for canonicalization. It hides
_all_ versions of a URL from Search.

- **Don't** specify different URLs as canonical for the same page using
different canonicalization techniques (for example, don't specify one URL in a
sitemap, but a different URL for that same page using `rel="canonical"`).

- **Don't** specify a fragment URL as canonical, as
[Google generally doesn't support fragment URLs](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/url-structure#fragments).

- **We don't recommend** using
[`noindex`](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/block-indexing) to prevent
selection of a canonical page within a single site, because it will completely block the page
from Search. `rel="canonical"` `link` annotations are the preferred
solution.

- If you're using
[`hreflang` elements](/search/docs/specialty/international/localized-versions),
make sure to specify a canonical page in the same language, or the best possible
substitute language if a canonical page doesn't exist for the same language.

- When linking within your site, link to the canonical URL rather than a duplicate URL.
Linking consistently to the URL that you consider to be canonical helps Google
understand your preference.


## Comparison of canonicalization methods

The following table compares the different canonicalization methods, highlighting their
strengths and weaknesses when it comes to maintenance and efficacy in different scenarios.

Method and description[`rel="canonical" link` element](#rel-canonical-link-method)

Add a `<link>` element in the code for all duplicate pages,
pointing to the canonical page.


**Pros:**

- Can map an infinite number of duplicate pages.

**Cons:**

- Can be complex to maintain the mapping on larger sites, or sites where
the URLs change often.

- Only works for HTML pages, not for files such as PDF. In such cases,
you can use the `rel="canonical"` HTTP header.


[`rel="canonical"` HTTP header](#rel-canonical-header-method)

Send a `rel="canonical"` header in your page response.

**Pros:**

- Doesn't increase page size.
- Can map an infinite number of duplicate pages.

**Cons:**

- Can be complex to maintain the mapping on larger sites, or sites where
the URLs change often.


[Sitemap](#sitemap-method)

Specify your canonical pages in a sitemap.

**Pros:**

- Easy to do and maintain, especially on large sites.

**Cons:**

- Google must still determine the associated duplicate for any
canonicals that you declare in the sitemap.

- Less powerful signal to Google than the `rel="canonical"`
mapping technique.


[Redirects](#redirects-method)
Use redirects to tell Googlebot that a redirected URL is a better version than a given
URL. Use this only when deprecating a duplicate page.
[AMP variant](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/amp)
If one of your variants is an AMP page, follow the AMP guidelines to
indicate the canonical page and AMP variant.


## Use `rel="canonical"` `link` annotations

Google supports explicit `rel` canonical `link`
annotations as described in
[RFC 6596](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6596).
`rel="canonical"` annotations that suggest alternate versions of a page are ignored;
specifically, `rel="canonical"` annotations with `hreflang`,
`lang`, `media`, and `type` attributes are not used for
canonicalization. Instead, use the appropriate `link` annotations to specify alternate
versions of a page; for example, `link` `rel="alternate"` [`hreflang`](/search/docs/specialty/international/localized-versions) for
language and country annotations.

You can provide the `rel="canonical"` `link` annotations in
two ways:

- [The `rel="canonical"` `link` element in the HTML](#rel-canonical-link-method)
- [The `rel="canonical"` `link` HTTP header](#rel-canonical-header-method)

We recommend that you choose one of these and go with that; while supported, using
both methods at the same time is more error prone (for example, you might provide
one URL in the HTTP header, and another URL in the `rel="canonical"` `link` element).

### The `rel="canonical"` `link` element

A `rel="canonical"` `link` element (also known as a
_canonical element_) is an element used in the `head` section of HTML
to indicate that another page is representative of the content on the page.

Suppose you want `https://example.com/dresses/green-dresses` to be the
canonical URL, even though a variety of URLs can access this content. Indicate this
URL as canonical with these steps:

1. Add a `<link>` element with the attribute
    `rel="canonical"` to the `<head>` section of
    duplicate pages, pointing to the canonical page. For example:




```
<html>
<head>
<title>Explore the world of dresses</title>
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/dresses/green-dresses" />
<!-- other elements -->
</head>
<!-- rest of the HTML -->
```

2. If the canonical page has a mobile variant on a separate URL, add a
    `rel="alternate"` `link` element to it, pointing to the mobile
    version of the page:




```
<html>
<head>
<title>Explore the world of dresses</title>
<link rel="alternate" media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)"  href="https://m.example.com/dresses/green-dresses">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/dresses/green-dresses" />
<!-- other elements -->
</head>
<!-- rest of the HTML -->
```

3. Add any
    [`hreflang`](/search/docs/specialty/international/localized-versions)
    or other elements that are appropriate for the page.


Use absolute paths rather than relative paths with the `rel="canonical"` `link` element. Even though relative paths are supported by Google, they
can cause problems in the long run (for example, if you unintentionally allow your
testing site to be crawled) and thus we don't recommend them.

**Good example**:
`https://www.example.com/dresses/green/greendress.html`

**Bad example**:
`/dresses/green/greendress.html`

The `rel="canonical"` `link element` is only accepted if it
appears in the `<head>` section of the HTML, so make sure at least the
[`<head>` section is valid HTML](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/valid-page-metadata).

If you use JavaScript to add the `rel="canonical"` `link` element,
make sure to
[inject the canonical link element properly](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/javascript-seo-basics#properly-inject-canonical-links).

### The `rel="canonical"` HTTP header

If you can change the configuration of your server, you can use a `link` [HTTP response header](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_header_fields)
with a `rel="canonical"` target attribute as defined by
[RFC5988](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5988.html#section-5.1)
rather than an HTML element to indicate the canonical URL for a document supported
by Search, including non-HTML documents such as PDF files.

Google supports this method for web search results only.

If you publish content in many file formats, such as PDF or Microsoft Word, each on
their own URL, you can return a `rel="canonical"` HTTP header to tell
Googlebot what is the canonical URL for the non-HTML files. For example, to indicate
that the PDF version of the `.docx` version should be canonical, you might
add this HTTP header for the `.docx` version of the content:

```
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 19
...
Link: <https://www.example.com/downloads/white-paper.pdf>; rel="canonical"
...
```

As with the `rel="canonical"` `link` element, use absolute URLs
in the `rel="canonical"` HTTP header, and as per
[RFC2616](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2616.html),
use only double quotes around the URL.

## Use a sitemap

Pick a canonical URL for each of your pages and submit them in a
[sitemap](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview). All pages
listed in a sitemap are suggested as canonicals; Google will decide which pages
(if any) are duplicates, based on similarity of content.

Supplying the preferred canonical URLs in the sitemaps is a simple way of defining
canonicals for a large site, and sitemaps are a useful way to tell Google which pages
you consider most important on your site.

## Use redirects

Use this method when you want to get rid of existing duplicate pages. All
[redirection methods](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects)
— `301` and `302` redirects, `meta-refresh`,
JavaScript redirects—have the same effect on Google Search, however the time
it takes for search engines to notice the different redirect methods may differ.

For the quickest effect, use `3xx` HTTP (also known as _server-side_)
redirects.

Suppose your page can be reached in multiple ways:

- `https://example.com/home`
- `https://home.example.com`
- `https://www.example.com`

Pick one of those URLs as your canonical URL, and use redirects to send traffic from
the other URLs to your preferred URL.

## Other signals

Apart from explicitly provided methods, Google also uses a set of canonicalization signals
that are generally based on site setup: preferring HTTPS over HTTP, and URLs in
`hreflang` clusters.

### Prefer HTTPS over HTTP for canonical URLs

Google prefers HTTPS pages over equivalent HTTP pages as canonical, except when there
are issues or conflicting signals such as the following:

- The HTTPS page has an invalid SSL certificate.
- The HTTPS page contains insecure dependencies (other than images).
- The HTTPS page redirects users to or through an HTTP page.
- The HTTPS page has a `rel="canonical"` `link`
to the HTTP page.


Although our systems prefer HTTPS pages over HTTP pages by default, you can ensure this
behavior by taking any of the following actions:

- Add redirects from the HTTP page to the HTTPS page.
- Add a `rel="canonical"` `link` from the HTTP
page to the HTTPS page.

- Implement
[HSTS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security).


To prevent Google from incorrectly making the HTTP page canonical, **avoid**
the following practices:

- Avoid bad TLS/SSL certificates and HTTPS-to-HTTP redirects because they cause Google
to prefer HTTP very strongly. Implementing HSTS cannot override this strong preference.

- Don't include the HTTP version of your pages in your sitemap or
[`hreflang` annotations](/search/docs/specialty/international/localized-versions)
rather than the HTTPS version.

- Avoid implementing your SSL/TLS certificate for the wrong host-variant. For example,
`example.com` serving the certificate for `subdomain.example.com`.
The certificate must match your complete site URL, or be a wildcard certificate that
can be used for multiple subdomains on a domain.


### Prefer URLs in `hreflang` clusters

To help with sites' localization efforts, for canonicalization purposes Google prefers
URLs that are part of `hreflang` clusters. For example, if
`https://example.com/de-de/cats` and
`https://example.com/de-ch/cats` reciprocally point to each other with
`hreflang` annotations, but not to
`https://example.com/de-at/cats`, the pages for
`de-de` and `de-ch` will be preferred as canonicals instead
of the `/de-at/` page that doesn't appear in the
`hreflang` cluster.

Read more about
[troubleshooting and fixing canonicalization issues](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/canonicalization-troubleshooting).



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Last updated 2024-09-03 UTC.

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{"lastModified": "Last updated 2024-09-03 UTC."}


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