Do you need a canonical tag for search and filter pages?

[znotes]

Hi Moz Community,

We've been implementing new canonical tags for our category pages but I have a question about pages that are found via search and our filtering options. Would we still need a canonical tag for pages that show up in search + a filter option if it only lists one page of items? Example below.

www.uncommongoods.com/search.html/find/?q=dog&exclusive=1

Thanks!

[RobCairns]

Hey Zack,

Great question!

The short answer here (to the best of my knowledge) is that canonical tags are utilized for static pages such as your category and product pages. However, dynamic pages (search & filter pages, for example) are not necessary as there are different queries users might input as well as a limitless combination of potential returns, depending on the size of your site.

Frankly, I think that running a tag on each of these pages is a poor use of time compared to ensuring that the pages themselves show up correctly when a user is searching (i.e. this is a site architecture/input return issue more than a canonical tag issue). I'm not saying don't do it, I just don't think you are going to get much from the process.

Tag your static pages, especially for anything unique to your site. Otherwise, I would say move on to bigger fish.

Cheers and hope this helps!

Rob

[BritneyMuller]

Definitely, agree with Robert. You do not need rel=canonical tags on filtered / search views of your content.

After you remove these rel=canonical's, I'd suggest running your site through Screaming Frog's rel=canonical error report to confirm that the rel=canonical issues are fixed.

Hope that helps,

B