Canonicalisation – simpler than it sounds

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Have you dealt with the canonical challenge on your site?  In other words, have you made sure that all of the urls below are redirected to a single page?

The Wikipedia definition of canonicalisation (spelt canonicalization in the US) is ”the process for converting data that has more than one possible representation into a “standard” canonical representation.”

In SEO, resolving any canonical issues you may have ensures that the popularity of your homepage is all attributed to one page.  addressing the canonicalisation challenge also ensures that search engines do not index more than one version of your homepage.

Below are the steps to follow in order to address canonicalisation on your site:

  1. Use the tool available on this site to see which version of your homepage to keep.

  2. Use your .htaccess file to permanently redirect (301) all other url versions of your homepage to the one you’ve selected.

  3. Test to make sure that the redirect works.

Thats it.  You now have one less thing to worry about when it comes to ensuring that your website meets SEO best practices!

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Head of SEO and Inbound Marketing at UK's largest media planning and buying agency. Omar has over 10 years experience in digital marketing with the last 6 being in large media agency environments, developing and implementing cutting edge digital campaigns for some of the world's best known brands. For the latest in digital marketing and industry news and updates, follow Omar's Twitter stream (@OmarKattan) or add him to one of your Google+ Circles: . The content of this article represents the personal views of the author and does not constitute professional advice.

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