What is Canonical Tag?

Without canonical tags, search engines may index multiple versions of the same content, splitting ranking authority and link equity across URLs. This dilutes your SEO power, wastes crawl budget, and can result in the wrong page version ranking. Search engines must guess which version is primary, leading to unpredictable indexation.

Canonical tags are not redirects and do not pass traffic. They only signal to search engines which version to index and rank. For actual traffic redirection, use HTTP 301 or 302 redirects instead. Canonical tags are purely for search engine guidance, not user experience.

Yes, best practice is to include a self-referential canonical tag on every page, even unique pages with no duplicates. This prevents accidental canonicalization issues and provides explicit clarity to search engines about which URL is preferred. It's a simple, protective measure that costs nothing.