Difference between Canonical and redirection?
- Thread starter kataria
- Start date
A canonical is basically telling Google the preferred/original version of a page. Redirect actually takes the user from one page to another.
Here's a real world example:
Let's say you published a post on your site and it went viral. If news outlets pick up that post, it's best practice for them to add a canonical tag pointing to the original source (your site). Then only your version would be indexed and they wouldn't be dinged for duplicate content. If someone links to the news outlets version... YOU get the link juice.
For a redirect, if you wrote that post 7 years ago and wrote a brand new updated version... you could redirect the old one to your new one if you wanted to.
Here's a real world example:
Let's say you published a post on your site and it went viral. If news outlets pick up that post, it's best practice for them to add a canonical tag pointing to the original source (your site). Then only your version would be indexed and they wouldn't be dinged for duplicate content. If someone links to the news outlets version... YOU get the link juice.
For a redirect, if you wrote that post 7 years ago and wrote a brand new updated version... you could redirect the old one to your new one if you wanted to.
Last edited:
Triton91
Regular Member
- Mar 16, 2018
- 343
- 179
A simple 301 redirect sends a message to search engines that the page has been permanently moved to the new link.
A canonical redirect sends a message to the search engines that you have multiple versions of the same page. The original link will be indexed by search engines, the "duplicate" pages will not be indexed.
A canonical redirect sends a message to the search engines that you have multiple versions of the same page. The original link will be indexed by search engines, the "duplicate" pages will not be indexed.
- Mar 21, 2013
- 24,767
- 31,554
Canonical is a Google extension. Some systems may not implement it.
301 is a official HTTP standard, every single browser and user agent must implement it.
301 is a official HTTP standard, every single browser and user agent must implement it.
swords12
Elite Member
- Oct 5, 2011
- 3,767
- 307
Both implementations can be different altogether. A change in the post's canonical link would mainly be performed, when you have let's say 5 articles with all 5 articles talking about the same topic, and the content are all very similar.
Due to such similarity, this causes issues like keyword cannibalization, which means that all these 5 posts could be fighting for the same spot on the SERP for the same keyword. Sometime, with 5 posts competing for the same spot on the SERP, that will cause major fluctuations to your SERP ranking in the process, which could be detrimental in some ways.
So if you have 5 posts all with similar content talking about the same thing, then pick 1 most competitive post that is doing well, and change the canonical link on the remaining 4 posts to the primary post, and that will signal the search engine to list and rank your preferred post instead. This will eliminate keyword cannibalization and your rank will be more stable in the process.
However, I doubt the canonical link passes link juice like the 301 does, or maybe not as effective.
Due to such similarity, this causes issues like keyword cannibalization, which means that all these 5 posts could be fighting for the same spot on the SERP for the same keyword. Sometime, with 5 posts competing for the same spot on the SERP, that will cause major fluctuations to your SERP ranking in the process, which could be detrimental in some ways.
So if you have 5 posts all with similar content talking about the same thing, then pick 1 most competitive post that is doing well, and change the canonical link on the remaining 4 posts to the primary post, and that will signal the search engine to list and rank your preferred post instead. This will eliminate keyword cannibalization and your rank will be more stable in the process.
However, I doubt the canonical link passes link juice like the 301 does, or maybe not as effective.