SEO Tips: What is and how Canonical Attribute works?

After multiple updates of Google, especially with the arrival of Google Panda, there have been many people who have had to catch up and understand once and for all why that is the canonical attribute important. Because that way they will avoid the dreaded animal of Google as they will be able to run some practices that could have duplicate content on their websites.

It is for this reason that it becomes fundamental, almost essential; to know what is the canonical attribute, what profits are and what their advantages today on our website.

What is the canonical attribute?

The canonical attribute is nothing but a flag is given to certain pages with very similar content, sometimes the content is an exact copy with the aim that these pages pointing to another.

Using the canonical attribute

This is what we try in Google and any search engine, disregard these pages, the which, could be interpreted as copies, to focus solely on that to which we redirected all of our traffic.

What are the advantages of canonical attribute?

Then we will see some of the benefits of including this attribute in some of our URLS.

The first thing we must realize is that we are to avoid as long as you take the right precautions, we consider that Google duplicate content. Something that immediately will deliver us from the clutches of Google Panda, so we will not be penalized.

Secondly, in the event that our website is a website with a lot of similar content, such as the case of an online store, we will have the opportunity to have all our controlled and structured content to Google continued actions do not affect us in the least.

So far so good. That is, we understand what the canonical attribute and we know what its main advantages are. That is why, now comes the turn to know how implement it within our web sites.

How to implement and how canonical attribute this work?

Indeed in this respect we have to take, almost by force, the recommendations that Google makes us to be at the end of the day, you will appreciate our websites.

Firstly we introduce this attribute as follows.

<link rel=”canonical” href=” http://www.seomastero.com/”/>

With this we are doing is to redirect those pages containing that attribute to the referrer. Yet, with all this happens a curious thing to bear in mind. And is that although we have said that the use of canonical attribute is used to avoid penalty of duplicate content, we have to say that Google is going to track each and every one of our pages not only staying in canon.

What we mean by this? Well, those pages are being redirected to the canonical will have to be equally maintained since Google never know when we will want to play a trick on the matter. As we take care of much of the canonical page is not unduly page, which violates the rules of Google in case you want to monetize or, in the worst case, a page that is not causing an error -404 and all that would affect very negatively on our organic positioning.