Three myths about canonical URLs

It comes up on almost every project, usually later than it should. A few things about canonical URLs that get repeated more often than they get checked.

Search engines are trying to answer a question, so the pages that answer questions clearly tend to do well. If two people in the business would answer this differently, that gap is the actual problem.

“It only matters for big sites”

Canonicals tell search engines which version is the real one. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. The teams that stay on top of it are the ones who put it on a calendar rather than a wish list.

“We can deal with it after launch”

Sometimes true, usually expensive. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it.

“Our platform handles it”

Self-referencing canonicals are a safe default. In practice this is a scheduling problem more than a technical one. If two people in the business would answer this differently, that gap is the actual problem.

The short version

Technical fixes remove obstacles; content earns the position. Both are needed and they are not interchangeable. Three things worth confirming about canonical URLs before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Self-referencing canonicals are a safe default — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

None of this needs a rewrite. Most of it is a morning's work once someone decides to do it.