Help with canonical tag

[Ezpro9]

hello-

i got this recommendation

<dl>

<dt>Recommendation</dt>

<dd>Add a canonical URL tag referencing this URL to the header of the page</dd>

<dd>from my "report card" and i see also that i have a lot of issues with duplicate content but i really dont have any duplicate content on my site.</dd>

<dd>the crawl has apparently marked every post in my blog as duplicate page content.</dd>

<dd>and the "use canonical tag" suggestion keeps appearing as a fix to my problems.</dd>

<dd>could you please help me with ------How do i create a canonical tag?</dd>

<dd>is it just rel=canonical?</dd>

<dd>and where do i put it?</dd>

<dd>i should put it on every page right?</dd>

<dd>or with CSS my webmaster could probably do it very quickly right?</dd>

<dd>i get the basic concept behind rel=canonical but i cant say i fully understand it -</dd>

<dd>i need some help with regard to how and where this tag should be placed.</dd>

<dd>thanks,</dd>

<dd>erik
</dd>

<dd>.</dd>

</dl>

[RyanKent]

Hi Erik.

For an example of the canonical tag, right click on this thread's page, choose View Page Source, and look at the top of the document. About the sixth line down you will see a line of code which reads as: . You will also notice the URL of this page matches exactly with that portion of the URL. The code which adds the http://www.seomoz.org prefix is located elsewhere in the code.

I would recommend every page of your site have a canonical tag added. It goes in between the tags of your page's HTML code.

The idea is that there are multiple ways to get to the same page. For example, you can reach this page by typing in "http://www.seomoz.org/q/help-with-canonical-tag" or "http://seomoz.org/q/help-with-canonical-tag" into your browser. Which page is the correct URL? The www version? or the version without the www?

By adding a canonical to your page, you are telling search engines which version you prefer for your site.

[networkelites]

Hey Erik,

This is probably due to URLs of the form http://domain.com not being 301ed to http://www.domain.com.

Depending on how your site was created (e.g. dynamic, static, CMS), it maye be easier to place 301 redirects in your configuration (Assuming you are using Apache, but should be possible in any Web Server).  If that is not possible, and you are using a dynamic language for your site, like PHP, you can place 301 redirect code there.  Short of these things, you can do as the tool suggested, and create Canonical tags.

[Ezpro9]

i hadnt realized this question was answered - i actually forgot i ever asked it - but thank you for the reply - when i use rel=canonical am i telling the SE's that i prefer www. ?

if the answer is yes - then i am all set - and the confusion is over

[RyanKent]

Yes as long as the "www" is included in the URL of the canonical tag.