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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Canonical Tag

A canonical tag is a small piece of code (rel="canonical") that tells search engines which version of a page is the “official” one when the same or very similar content lives at more than one URL.

Why it matters

Sites often serve identical content at multiple addresses — with and without “www”, with tracking parameters, printer versions, and so on. Without a canonical, engines may split credit across duplicates or index the wrong one. The tag consolidates that into a single authoritative URL.

When it matters most

E-commerce catalogues, filtered or sorted pages, and any site where the same page is reachable several ways.

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