Using Canonical Link URL can turn out to be a bit tricky for most bloggers and webmasters as they usually fail to figure out when there’s a misconfiguration.
So, Canonical URL Errors is a common phenomenon.
Here’s a quick round-up of the best practices that you should follow for using rel=canonical to avoid Canonical Errors.
• The preferred canonical web page version should have a large portion of content matching the duplicate page’s content
• Make sure that the target URL referred by rel=canonical link exists
• The rel=canonical target link should not contain a noindex robots meta tag
• The rel=canonical link should be included at the <head> of the page or the HTTP header
• Specify only one rel=canonical URL for a webpage
• Make sure that the target URL referred by rel=canonical link exists
• The rel=canonical target link should not contain a noindex robots meta tag
• The rel=canonical link should be included at the <head> of the page or the HTTP header
• Specify only one rel=canonical URL for a webpage
Error 1: Use of rel=canonical link to the first page of a paginated series
In such a scenario, you should use rel=canonical from component pages to a single page version of the article. You can also use rel= “prev” and rel= “next” pagination markup.
Error2: Multiple declarations of rel=canonical
This error occurs when pages have multiple rel=canonical links to different URLs. In such cases, search engines ignore all the rel=canonical hints. So, benefit occurring from a legitimate rel=canonical link will be lost.
In such cases, checking the page’s source code will help to correct the issue. It would be a good idea to check the entire <head> section as rel=canonical URLs may be spread apart.
Error 3: Using rel=canonical URL in the <body>
The rel=canonical URL should be present only in the <head> of an HTML document. However, if you use rel=canonical URL in the <body>, it will be disregarded.
To avoid this mistake or error, you should double-check to verify that the rel=canonical URL is present in the <head> of your page. It is recommended to use the rel=canonical link in the <head> as early as possible.
Fixing Canonicalization Problems
Canonicalization issues can be fixed by using “canonical tag” that enables you to declare (within the HTML Header) that the specified URL should be recognized as a copy of the original document and names the canonical URL to which all link authority should be directed.
Example:
<link rel=”canonical” href= https://www.webseomaking.com/ />
By doing so, you specify to the search engines to index the canonical URL specified in this tag and pass the link authority to the canonical URL.
Another solution is to use 301 redirects.
It is used to redirect permanently from one URL to another and carries link authority from one URL to other.
However, implementing 301 redirects is harder than the rel=canonical tag.
For 301 redirects, you have to create a .htaccess file that has to be uploaded to the root of the server. Doing this is a complicated affair for a non-programmer. So, it is recommended to get a programmer to do this for you.
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