About canonical URLs
- Canonical URLs are used to avoid duplicate content and to indicate to search engines which is the “original” page. It is simply an indication in the page code to indicate to search engines that it is not the original page and that the source content is located on this other page.
- If you have multiple similar versions of the same content (which is very common these days) accessible from multiple URLs and you don't use canonical URLs, search engines will penalize your SEO because of these pages that are considered "duplicate content."
- But if you use canonical URLs, the pages that were considered “duplicate content” (different pages with the same content) will already be considered the same page by search engines (they are related to the canonical URL).
How it works
- The module automatically adds a canonical URL to all product, category, CMS, manufacturer and supplier pages. By default, the module uses the current URL of the page as the default canonical URL.
- Use the general settings to apply changes to all your default canonical URLs. You can automatically change the domain (if you have duplicate content between two domains), the protocol (if you have duplicate content between http and https) or to remove parameters (if you have duplicate content due to URLs with parameters) in the canonical URLs.
- If you want to define a custom canonical URL for a specific product, category, CMS page… you have to go to the settings of this page, choose the “Custom URL” option and write the custom canonical URL you want.
General settings (default canonical urls)
The module allows you to configure common rules that apply to all canonical URLs by default
- You can define the name of the main domain (if you use different domains with the same content) to indicate to the search engines which is the main domain. For example: if you write www.domain2.es as the main domain, the canonical URL of the page www.domain.es/product.html will be www.domain2.es/product.html
- You can add “http” or “https” before the canonical URL (to avoid duplicate content between the http and https versions of a website). E.g. if you choose https for the canonical URL, the canonical URL for the page www.domain.es/product.html will be https:// www.domain.es/product.html
- You can add a list of parameters to exclude (if you have multiple URLs for the same page). E.g. if you add for example this parameter list (live_configurator_token, id_employee, id_shop), the canonical URL for the page www.domain.es/product.html?live_configurator_token=123&id_employee=1&id_shop=1 will be www.domain.es/product.html
- You can also add the canonical URL in the HTTP header of the page (this section is only visible to browsers)
Custom Canonical URLs
The module also allows you to add a specific canonical URL for the products, categories, CMS, manufacturers and suppliers you want.
- To do this, you just need to edit a product, category, CMS page, manufacturer or supplier in your store, the module automatically adds a new section in the configuration of this page.
- In the settings of this page, select the “Custom URL” option and enter the canonical URL you want, you can enter a different URL for each language of your store (multi-language store).
hreflang tags
The module allows you to add the hreflang tag to let Google know which languages or regions each page is targeted to. This will improve your SEO, avoid duplicate content, and enhance user experience. It will also allow you to add the default “x-default” tag for users in countries for which the language is not set on your site or for those who do not have the language set in their browser.
Essential for doing international SEO.
