Canonical Tags: Why Are These Important for Technical SEO?

Websites often have multiple versions of the same page, which can benefit your Las Vegas technical SEO plan. That said, making it clear which one a search engine should index and treat as the main version of the page is crucial.

Here is a rundown of what you need to know about using canonical tags to set your main pages:

• Defining canonical tags and their use in technical SEO.
• Three risks of not establishing canonical pages with tags.
• Five strategies to get around canonicalization problems.

There is a lot to discuss, so get ready to take notes.

Let’s go!

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What Is a Canonical Tag?

A canonical tag is an annotation in your page’s HTML code that signals to search engines that it is the primary version of the page. To be more precise, using a canonical tag is like asking the search engine to treat the page as the correct one to index and display on search results pages.

This comes with many benefits, such as making better use of your SEO crawl budget if you post a lot of content and maintain a large volume of pages. It also helps you identify which page to keep up to date and treat as the complete version, helping your content strategy. 

That said, the tag might not always work how you want. Google has its own way of picking canonical pages and cites the tag as a hint rather than a rule. For instance, it looks at which page is the most complete and relevant to display in search results, bypassing your tag.

What Do Canonical Tags Do for SEO?

When you use canonical tags, you essentially tell search engines that you want one page to be the primary version, apart from any duplicates of it. This, in effect, gives you a bit of agency over how crawler bots index your content. It can also affect what shows up in search results.

For example, you run a Las Vegas hotel website that has US and UK URLs to accommodate language and promotional differences. Even though these pages slightly differ (e.g., currencies of prices or US vs.UK phone numbers), the suite content is mostly the same. To avoid duplicate content issues, use the canonical tag to let search engines know that the content is the same.

Placing the canonical tag <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.domainname/us/suites" /> on the UK version, for example, tells search engines that the US version is the preferred (or the "canonical") one. That does not mean that the UK version will not be indexed or shown to UK users. It only means search engines should consider the US version as the primary one. 

A canonical tag is part of good Las Vegas technical SEO because it helps you avoid keyword cannibalization, which is the process of too many pages trying to rank for the same term. This can result in scattered traffic and reduce the benefits of your on-page and off-page SEO tactics.

Affix a canonical tag to pages that you consider the complete version so that search engines can properly crawl, index, and rank them. Do this, especially if you target different places.

Three Risks of Not Having Canonical Tags

Though your website can function without canonical tags, not having them poses several risks that can hinder your technical SEO strategy. Here are three of the biggest reasons not to skip canonical tags. Each point, along with those above, is explained in more detail:

1. Part of search engines' crawl and index processes is identifying each page's canonical version. Without canonical tags, you risk letting the bots index the wrong page, not the one you want. While this is not too serious, it can slow down your SEO strategies.

2. Another reason why canonical tags are important is that they limit the pages that appear in search results. Users might get confused seeing too many duplicates of the same content. This has a negative impact on the user experience (UX).

3. As mentioned, duplicate pages fight to rank for the same keyword, which weakens each one’s SEO score. It divides traffic among the different pages and reduces the effect of solid Las Vegas technical SEO strategies. Having canonical tags is the answer.

Five Methods to Fix Canonical Tag Issues

Now that the benefits of using tags and the risks of not using them have been laid out, the next important step is learning to fix issues. It is not as simple as adding the annotation to any page that you see fit. There are other adjustments to make as well. Here are five of them:

1. First, identify which standalone pages lack a canonical tag. Even if you have no duplicates, it is still good to include the tag in the event that you later change your mind. Make sure to identify the main page that you want to keep building.

2. For pages with duplicates, locate all of their duplicates and then decide which of those you want to designate as the primary version of the content. Note which page is most crucial for SEO.

3. Use redirects if there are relevant pages in your search, such as pages that serve different places but essentially contain the same or similar information. A 301 redirect connects the primary page to the one displayed at the user’s location.

4. Given that you are working with multiple pages, tens if not hundreds, meant to have a canonical tag, you must have a system in place to verify them. Invest in tools that can speed up and simplify this process. 

5. If following the above steps seems confusing or like a lot of work, you can also hire a Las Vegas technical SEO agency to help. They already have the tools and know-how to apply tags to your content. In addition, you benefit greatly from their expertise in SEO.

Summing Up

A strong technical SEO (and content) strategy needs canonical tags to help mark the line between what is a necessary duplicate and what is the primary version that you want to rank. Applying the tag itself is easy. Verifying your tags takes a while to accomplish and also takes a lot of practice. It helps to work with a Las Vegas technical SEO agency. 

Need help boosting your technical SEO strategy? Contact Digital Authority Partners (DAP) to learn how we can help.