The canonical tag is a piece of HTML code that is used to indicate the preferred or canonical version of a webpage to search engines. It is often used when a website has multiple versions of the same content, for example, when a single article is available on different URLs or when a product page has several versions depending on filters or parameters.
The canonical tag helps search engines understand which version of the content should be indexed and displayed in search results, which can prevent duplicate content issues and improve the overall SEO of the website.
There are two main types of canonical tags:
Self-referencing canonical tag: This type of canonical tag is used when a webpage has multiple versions with slightly different URLs. The self-referencing canonical tag points to the current URL of the page, indicating that this is the preferred version that should be indexed by search engines.
Cross-domain canonical tag: This type of canonical tag is used when the same content is available on different domains or subdomains. The cross-domain canonical tag points to the preferred domain or subdomain, indicating that this is the version that should be indexed by search engines.
In addition to these two main types, there are also other variations of the canonical tag, such as the use of rel=canonical HTTP headers or the implementation of canonical tags through XML sitemaps.
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