Canonical Link Element

September 10, 2009 - 10:28 pm 21 Comments

Matt Cutts of Google introduces the canonical link element.

Resources:
Blog post on Google webmaster blog:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html

Yahoo blog post:
http://ysearchblog.com/2009/02/12/fighting-duplication-adding-more-arrows-to-your-quiver/

Microsoft:
http://blogs.msdn.com/webmaster/archive/2009/02/12/partnering-to-help-solve-duplicate-content-issues.aspx

Ask:
http://blog.ask.com/2009/02/ask-is-going-canonical.html

Google Help Center documentation:
http://google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=139394

Joost de Valk: WordPress, Magento, and Drupal
http://yoast.com/canonical-url-links/

Duration : 0:20:28


[youtube Cm9onOGTgeM]

21 Responses to “Canonical Link Element”

  1. Chexander Says:

    Much respect to the …
    Much respect to the cleaning crew

    12:28 / 20:28

  2. FreshVampireApples Says:

    You look like doug …
    You look like doug benson

  3. davethetruth Says:

    How does google …
    How does google treat links tagged with the Google URL Builder???? Are these considered unique links with duplicate content?

  4. Apoc4lypse2090 Says:

    What in the world …
    What in the world are you doing, and do you even know?

  5. extremeseo2010 Says:

    Matt, this a very …
    Matt, this a very good explanation to all of us. Thanks!

  6. ontheflipside200 Says:

    You cite a url with …
    You cite a url with a trailing slash as being a separate page from that of a url without the trailing slash; though I was under the impression that a browser performs a GET request specifying the page to retrieve (when at the root, this being “/”). So by that principal, how would a request even go out to the domain without (essentially) a request without the trailing slash? Is there any need to differentiate the two (being that, without the trailing slash, it doesn’t exist)?

  7. freekzero Says:

    Didn’t realize the …
    Didn’t realize the subtitles could be turned off. Seems they came up by default earlier, but not they don’t. Thanks for that.

    DeafTuber, you got me wrong. I got nothing against providing the option of subtitles at all, just don’t think they should be intrusive and mandatory as these were earlier. I actually consider screen readers in every site I build, and volunteer web services to a disabled sports group (which includes some deaf users), so I am decidedly more sensitive to the issue than most

  8. Giadghfg Says:

    I really liked your …
    I really liked your video and your channel. If you need any help getting this video or channel exposed I use a site called tubeviews.(net) It has really helped like 20 of my main videos get to the top in position. Its nice.

    This rox… Thank you very much.

  9. gl3nnx Says:

    matt is a great …
    matt is a great speaker

  10. panormania Says:

    useful – as always …
    useful – as always – thanks Matt and all the googlers behind this

  11. DeafTuber Says:

    Freekzero, I …
    Freekzero, I disagree about the subtitles. Whether if the subject of this video SPEAKS clearly enough or not, there are millions of Deaf viewers who don’t have the same convenience of listening to audio instructions like you do.

    I understand you take it for granted but please realize that the subtitles are of utmost importance for a large enough number of us to actual warrant such a easy-to-implement feature, that doesn’t “get in our way”.

    I thank Matt Cutts for subtitling this video; equally.

  12. teominatoryou Says:

    Thanks for the …
    Thanks for the video, this really shed some light on the canonical thing

  13. OdysseyArts Says:

    Darwin belongs in …
    Darwin belongs in the monkey cage with Galt, where they perpetually evolve into genocidal Eugenists. [Lose the Darwin.] What does “dub – dub – dub” mean?… Otherwise, great info.

  14. nicknam4e Says:

    Thank you for the …
    Thank you for the caption, we talk abour Video accessibility :D

  15. SearchEngineSEO Says:

    Matt why are you …
    Matt why are you not accepting video responces? Tags: canonical, link element, duplicate content, search engines, google. – see my video :)

  16. dannyhosp Says:

    Great advice from …
    Great advice from Mr cutts will discuss this in our next development meeting!!

  17. GoogleWebmasterHelp Says:

    Hi freekzero,

    You …
    Hi freekzero,

    You can turn off the captions by hovering over the arrow icon in the lower-right of the video and then clicking on the CC icon.

  18. freekzero Says:

    Great new feature, …
    Great new feature, thx. I’ve stuck to best practices to eliminate most duplicate content issues, but referrer tags have been an ongoing issue on at least 2 sites where I’ve done some SEO work. Great to have this tool to finally deal with that.

    As to the video itself, please lose the subtitles, or at least make them way smaller. Matt speaks very clearly and at a good pace, so the text really isn’t needed, and just gets in the way.

  19. JKimbley Says:

    dub…dub…dub… …
    dub…dub…dub… So annoying.

  20. SearchEngineSEO Says:

    AMAZING !!
    AMAZING !!

  21. gotecki Says:

    Web evolution? Hmm. …
    Web evolution? Hmm…
    First of all, stop using Arial right NOW.

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