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How does canonicalization help with duplicate content issues?
Asked on Nov 15, 2025
Answer
Canonicalization helps manage duplicate content by indicating the preferred version of a webpage to search engines, ensuring that SEO signals are consolidated to a single URL. This prevents dilution of ranking factors across duplicate pages and helps maintain a coherent indexing strategy.
Example Concept: Canonicalization involves using the "link rel='canonical'" tag in the HTML head of a webpage to specify the preferred URL when multiple pages have similar or identical content. This tag helps search engines understand which version to index and rank, thus avoiding duplicate content penalties and improving SEO performance.
Additional Comment:
- Canonical tags should be used on all pages with duplicate or similar content.
- Ensure the canonical URL is accessible and returns a 200 status code.
- Regularly audit your site to identify and correct any canonical tag issues.
- Canonicalization is not a directive but a hint to search engines.
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