Canonical tags

SEO

What are canonical tags?

A canonical tag (also known as rel=”canonical” tags) is a way of telling search engines that a specific URL represents the primary or preferred address of a web page.

Search engines may perceive each URL variation (e.g., http vs. https or www vs. non-www) as a different address, so using a canonical tag tells search engines which version of a URL you want to appear in their search results.

Why are canonical tags important?

Although Google’s algorithm has advanced to the point where it can often identify duplicate content on its own, setting canonical tags is a best practice to stay ahead of algorithms and has additional advantages.

Manage duplicate content: When identical or similar content is available on multiple URLs, search engines may have difficulty understanding which version to prioritize in search results. Canonical tags help consolidate the authority and ranking signals to your preferred version, preventing issues and penalties related to duplicate content.

Optimize SEO efforts: Canonical tags help consolidate ranking signals (such as backlinks) to the preferred version of a page. This helps concentrate SEO efforts on a single URL, increasing its chances of ranking higher in search results.

Create consistency of indexing: Canonical tags direct search engine crawlers to focus on the intended version of your content, leading to more accurate indexing.

Improve user experience: Canonical tags help search engines direct users to the preferred version of your page. This helps in avoiding confusion and ensures that users consistently access the most relevant and authoritative content on your site.

Learn more about canonical URLs in this Moz article and related Google Search Central documentation.

How to set up canonical tags in Webflow

There are multiple approaches to setting up canonical tags in Webflow.

Be sure to choose only one of the following methods, as duplicate or conflicting canonical tags may confuse search engines and negate its intended effects.

Self-referencing tags via Site settings

You can set up your Webflow site to automatically and dynamically add the canonical tag on each of your published pages, including each unique URL slug.

Navigate to your Site settings > SEO page.

In the “Global canonical tag URL” section > “Global canonical URL” field, input the preferred domain for your site.‍
- Include the appropriate www/non-www prefix, as search engines may recognize different combinations as duplicate content (e.g., https://acme.com is different from https://www.acme.com). ‍
- Include the appropriate HTTP/HTTPS protocol, for the same reason as the above. Note that Google prefers HTTPS pages over HTTP as canonical, which means your site should have SSL enabled as a best practice.‍
- Exclude the trailing slash at the end of your domain. Otherwise, it will cause double slashes in the auto-appended canonical tags on pages (e.g., //about).
- For the vast majority of sites, your input domain should match the default domain set in your publishing settings. However, there are some cases where they want to set a different canonical URL, such as when dealing with duplicate content across different domains or subdomains (e.g., a reverse proxy setup).

Press the “Save” button and publish your site for changes to take effect.

Custom tags via Page settings

Manually managing a custom canonical tag on each page (instead of automatically setting a self-referencing one) may be preferable in certain scenarios, such as complex SEO strategies or content syndication.

To manually set your canonical tags, you can add the appropriate canonical tag through the Page settings > Custom code sections (inside the <head> tag) for each of your pages.

Static pages should include the exact, absolute URL you want to set as the canonical, e.g. https://www.acme.com —

CMS template pages can be set up to dynamically include the item’s page slug (another custom Plain text field, if desired).

Injected tags via custom code

While Google doesn’t recommend using JavaScript for canonical tags, it is possible to inject them with JavaScript. Google Search will pick up the injected canonical URL when rendering the page. This may be desirable or necessary in certain scenarios — such as rewriting Webflow’s self-referencing tags with a reverse proxy setup, or overriding a self-referencing tag on a single page — but is not generally a preferred practice.

When making any major changes like an updated canonical tag, remember to ask Google to recrawl your site to ensure search results are updated as quickly as possible.