If a URL canonically points to another link, is that URL indexed?

[Chemometec]

Hi,

I have two URL both talking about keyword phrase 'counting aggregated cells'

The first URL has canonical link pointing to the second URL, but if one searches for 'counting aggregated cells' both URLs are shown in the results.

The first URL is the pdf, and i need only second URL (the landing page) to be shown in the search results.

The canonical links should tell Google which URL to index, i don't understand why both URLs are present in search results? Is 'noindex' for the first URL only solution?

I am using Yoast SEO for my website.

Thank you for the answers.

[anthonydnelson]

If set up correctly, using the canonical tag as described above will usually keep the actual PDF out of the index. Using NoIndex is a guaranteed method to keep it out of the index.

[Coolguyry]

Hey Lana,

Similar to what Anthony said, you're setup should keep the PDF url from being indexed. In order to help ensure the PDF doesn't get indexed you can do the following:

1. Use the robots.txt file to block Google crawlers:

User-agent: *

Disallow: *.pdf

2. Use rel="nofollow" on links that point to the PDF

Download PDF

Hope this helps!

[Guest]

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