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Dictionary

Canonical URL

The single URL a search engine should credit for a piece of content.

1 min readupdated 2026-07-04

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A <link rel='canonical'> tag tells Google 'this is the authoritative URL' — consolidating ranking signals across duplicates (query params, mobile variants, syndicated copies). The single URL a search engine should credit for a piece of content.

The single URL a search engine should credit for a piece of content. A <link rel='canonical'> tag tells Google 'this is the authoritative URL' — consolidating ranking signals across duplicates (query params, mobile variants, syndicated copies). In practice: A blog on medium.com and yoursite.com points canonical to yoursite.com to keep SEO equity.
Definition
A <link rel='canonical'> tag tells Google 'this is the authoritative URL' — consolidating ranking signals across duplicates (query params, mobile variants, syndicated copies).
Example
A blog on medium.com and yoursite.com points canonical to yoursite.com to keep SEO equity.

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What is Canonical URL?

A <link rel='canonical'> tag tells Google 'this is the authoritative URL' — consolidating ranking signals across duplicates (query params, mobile variants, syndicated copies).

What is an example of Canonical URL?

A blog on medium.com and yoursite.com points canonical to yoursite.com to keep SEO equity.

Why does Canonical URL matter?

The single URL a search engine should credit for a piece of content.

What should I learn after Canonical URL?

Open the related workflows and prompts further down this page: they show how this idea is applied in a real task, step by step.

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