Proactively Standardize Your Homepage
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 6:22 am
Canonical Tags and 301 Redirects
A common SEO question is whether canonical tags pass link equity (PageRank, Authority, etc.) like 301 redirects. In most cases, they do, but this can be a tricky question. Keep in mind that these two solutions create two very different results for search crawlers and site visitors. If you 301 redirect Page A -> Page B, human visitors will automatically be redirected to Page B and will never see Page A. If you use canonical A -> Page B, search engines will see Page B as canonical, but users will be able to visit either URL. Make sure your solution matches the desired result.
1. Use 301 Redirects
A 301 redirect is a status code. It sends visitors albania phone number library and search engines to a different URL or search results page than the one they first requested in their browser. These redirects also link multiple URLs together so that search engines rank all incoming addresses based on domain authority.
2. Use Passive Parameters in Google Search Console
In Google Search Console, once your website is verified, you can find the option to adjust URL parameters. What this does is give you the ability to tell Google which parameters you want to treat as passive. This means you can tell Google, “Whenever you see this URL parameter, treat it as if it doesn’t exist.”
3. Use Location Hashes
A fragment URL, also known as a fragment identifier, is a URL that eventually specifies a specific section on a page (usually jumping to an ID that matches the name of the fragment identifier). The URL may contain a hash, and Google, along with other search engines, will treat it as a single URL. This means that the skipped content will not be ranked differently and therefore indexed differently, and will ultimately be canonicalized to the same URL.
4. Canonical Tags Can Be Self-Referential
If a canonical tag points to the current URL, that's fine. In other words, if URLs X, Y, and Z are duplicates and X is the canonical version, it's OK to point the tag to URL X in X. This may sound good, but it's a common point of confusion.
A common SEO question is whether canonical tags pass link equity (PageRank, Authority, etc.) like 301 redirects. In most cases, they do, but this can be a tricky question. Keep in mind that these two solutions create two very different results for search crawlers and site visitors. If you 301 redirect Page A -> Page B, human visitors will automatically be redirected to Page B and will never see Page A. If you use canonical A -> Page B, search engines will see Page B as canonical, but users will be able to visit either URL. Make sure your solution matches the desired result.
1. Use 301 Redirects
A 301 redirect is a status code. It sends visitors albania phone number library and search engines to a different URL or search results page than the one they first requested in their browser. These redirects also link multiple URLs together so that search engines rank all incoming addresses based on domain authority.
2. Use Passive Parameters in Google Search Console
In Google Search Console, once your website is verified, you can find the option to adjust URL parameters. What this does is give you the ability to tell Google which parameters you want to treat as passive. This means you can tell Google, “Whenever you see this URL parameter, treat it as if it doesn’t exist.”
3. Use Location Hashes
A fragment URL, also known as a fragment identifier, is a URL that eventually specifies a specific section on a page (usually jumping to an ID that matches the name of the fragment identifier). The URL may contain a hash, and Google, along with other search engines, will treat it as a single URL. This means that the skipped content will not be ranked differently and therefore indexed differently, and will ultimately be canonicalized to the same URL.
4. Canonical Tags Can Be Self-Referential
If a canonical tag points to the current URL, that's fine. In other words, if URLs X, Y, and Z are duplicates and X is the canonical version, it's OK to point the tag to URL X in X. This may sound good, but it's a common point of confusion.