What is canonization and how it affects your site in Google

Canonization is the process of choosing a representative URL for content on your site. The canonical URL is the address of the page that Google considers the most relevant among duplicated pages. This process helps Google to show only one version of content in the search results, excluding duplicate. Often such a process is called dedication.

The causes of duplicated content can be different:

Regional options: for example, content for the United States and the UK, available in different URLs, but in fact it is the same.
Options for various devices: for example, a mobile and desktop version of the page.
Protocol options: for example, website versions on HTTP and HTTPS.
Site functions: for example, pages with the results of sorting or filtration of category.
Unintentional doubles: for example, a demo version of the site, accidentally remaining available for search robots.

Some cases of duplicated content on your site are normal, and they do not violate Google's policy. However, when the same content is available through several URLs, this can create confusion for users, as well as complicate the tracking of content performance in the search results.

How Google indexes and chooses a canonical URL for your site in Google

When Google indexes the page, it analyzes the main content (or central part) of the page. If Google finds several pages with similar content, he chooses the one that, based on the collected factors, is the most complete and useful for users. This page becomes canonical, and it is her Google will bypass more often, and doubles - less often to reduce the load on the site resources.

There are several factors that can affect canonization: the use of HTTP or HTTPS, redirects, the presence of URL in the site map and annotation rel="canonical". You can specify Google preferred canonical URL using these methods, however, Google can choose another URL as canonical for various reasons. It is important to understand that this is only a hint, not a tough rule.

Canonics and multilingual or multi -level versions of content on your Google website

Different language versions of one page are considered duplicated only if the main content remains the same (for example, only a hat, a basement and other insignificant elements are translated, and the main text is not). Learn more about setting up multilingual sites in the Google documentation for managing many -speaking and multi -level sites.

How Google uses a canonical page to evaluate the content of your site in Google

Google uses a canonical page as the main source to assess the quality of content. Google search results usually show a canonical page, if only one of the duplicates does not better comply with the user's request. For example, if the user is looking for a site from a mobile device, the result may be associated with the mobile version of the page, even if the desktop version is canonical.

Learn more about how to indicate preferences on the canonical URL for your site in Google and whether it is necessary to do it.

If you have questions, you can contact the Seo.computer SEO companion for any question through email info@seo.computer, WhatsApp +79202044461.

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