Canonicalization: Why is it important for SEO?

What is canonicalization?

In web search and search engine optimisation (SEO) canonicalization is a term used to describe web content that has one or more URLs.

Why is canonicalization important for SEO?

Canonicalization is really important for web pages when it comes to SEO. The reason for this is that if a webpage is not properly canonicalized then it means that it is essentially showing duplicate content. This has a massive effect on the ranking of the website in Google UK as the Google search engine only recognises one URL per web page. Therefore the web sites current link equity is split between at least 2 versions and Google will remove 1 version from its index so as not to show duplicate content to its users. This can have a massive knock on effect throughout the site as many of your links could be cut out of Google’s index therefore the credibility of your web pages can severely decrease.

Why is canonicalization a factor for SEO?

Canonicalization is a big factor for SEO as it is a key way of improving a sites credibility and ranking. To resolve this issue and have all of your webpage content under one URL benefits your company when employing SEO as now you will be able to undertake a high quality linkbuilding strategy. This will boost the links to and from your site and should increase the sites ranking considerably as your total links will go up. In turn this may also cause an upturn in the traffic to your site and ultimately result in more leads for your business.