Canonical URL

The "preferred" version of a page specified in HTML when the same or similar content is accessible via multiple URLs — for example, with and without tracking parameters. Canonical tags prevent duplicate-content confusion and consolidate authority signals onto a single URL.

Why it matters

Without it, search engines can split ranking credit across near-duplicate URLs instead of concentrating it on the one you actually want to rank.

Related terms

Crawlability XML Sitemap

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