rel canonical?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by rockiesfan24, Jun 17, 2013.

  1. #1
    Hey everyone - I have a site with wordpress and use SEO by Yoast. Yoast has included rel canonical tags in all of my new product pages I have added.

    For example I have a category "accessories" and from there I will have a picture of the product and product title, clicking that product will take you to the actual product page with description, price, etc. etc. Yoast seems to have put rel canonical tags on all of those pages. Is this affecting SEO? Should I remove them? I don't want the descriptions being listed as "duplicate content" because that is where all the content actually is.

    Thanks!
     
    rockiesfan24, Jun 17, 2013 IP
  2. Revelations-Decoder

    Revelations-Decoder Well-Known Member

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    #2
    This could be an interesting thread as Yoast is a member here. Is it possible you can show the name of site without posting a link please?

    This canonical thing seems to cause a lot of confusion so would be good to get to the botton of it as I have noticed SEO plugins adding the canonical link as the page posted and as I don't use Yoasts WP plugin would be interested in seeing how his take works with your set up please.
     
    Revelations-Decoder, Jun 17, 2013 IP
  3. petersmith5544

    petersmith5544 Greenhorn

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    #3
    Rel=”canonical” is an HTML attribute that goes in the <head> section of webpages to help deal with duplicate or very similar content by identifying to search engines what the master version of the page is, so that the correct page is fetched and ranked for phrases and now, to also help with sending thin/duplicate signals. Rel=”canonical” is a tool for when you are unable to implement alternatives.
     
    petersmith5544, Jun 18, 2013 IP
  4. Revelations-Decoder

    Revelations-Decoder Well-Known Member

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    #4

    and that answers the OP's question about Yoasts WP SEO plugin and what it is doing how?
     
    Revelations-Decoder, Jun 18, 2013 IP
  5. rockiesfan24

    rockiesfan24 Active Member

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    #5

    Thank you, I have looked them up and researched what they are on various sites including Moz and Matt Cutts on what he has had to say about them. I'm just not sure why Yoast would include them in my tags? It isn't duplicate content that it is linking to.

    Would you put the tag on the page with the content you want displayed or on the page linking to it?

    As for Decoder, my website is undergoing a little maintenance at the moment, and I'm trying to fix all my warnings before it is live again - including if I will or not change the canonical tags.
     
    rockiesfan24, Jun 18, 2013 IP