What is Canonicalization?
Canonicalization is the process of standardizing URLs to a single version, allowing search engines to better understand the content of a web page. This is important for search engine optimization (SEO) as the correct version of a website is more likely to appear in the SERPs (search engine result pages). Canonicalization helps search engines to index the right version of a web page, which may have multiple versions.
Types of Canonicalization
There are two types of canonicalization:
- URL Canonicalization – This is where the URL of the web page is standardized, so that all versions of the same page will point to the same URL.
- Content Canonicalization – This is where the content of the web page is standardized, so that all versions of the same page will contain the same content.
Examples of Canonicalization
- URL Canonicalization – This is where the URL of the web page is standardized, so that all versions of the same page will point to the same URL. For example, http://www.example.com and http://example.com will both be canonicalized to http://www.example.com.
- Content Canonicalization – This is where the content of the web page is standardized, so that all versions of the same page will contain the same content. For example, if a web page has multiple versions for different languages, the same content should be used in all versions.
Conclusion
Canonicalization is important for SEO as it helps search engines to index the right version of a web page, which may have multiple versions. URL canonicalization ensures that all versions of a web page point to the same URL, while content canonicalization ensures that all versions of the same page contain the same content. For more information on canonicalization and SEO, visit the following resources: