Simply Great Designs

Google released some information recently on how and when to use rel=”canonical” regarding duplicate content. In October 2009 Google announced that they would support the use of canonical elements on domains. Google only recognizes it when the URL in the link matches the domain URL. Webmasters of the past have used cross domain support to help cut down on duplicate content issues. Basically the content is copied through the canonical element and put on another domain.

Google is the only online search engine that will support the rel=”canonical” element. However, Yahoo and Bing will be adding the option to their engines shortly. The idea is to place duplicate content on the internet without being tagged by the bots. Google is supporting the idea as long as they are not going to have to figure out the indexing for the sites. Basically when you use the canonical element you are telling the bots and Google which site is more important.

To use it you will want to use the shortest version of an URL when possible. The element will pass page rank in that it works like a 301 redirect to help you funnel page rank to the proper URL rather than having it go to the variations that you have out there. The primary URL will be indexed and from there the leading page will take you to duplicate content pages if you want it to. In other words if you have affiliate sites with the same content your affiliates can get some play too.

Top Click Media is a search engine optimisation UK company which has done a great deal of research on the subject. Take a look at their blog.

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