The rel=canonical tag is an HTML tag that is used to indicate the preferred or canonical version of a webpage. The rel=canonical tag is used to specify the URL of the webpage that should be considered as the original or definitive version of the page, and that should be used by search engines and users to access the page.
The rel=canonical tag is used to solve a common problem in web development, known as duplicate content. Duplicate content occurs when the same or similar content is available on multiple URLs on a website, or on multiple websites. This can cause confusion for search engines, which may not know which version of the content to index and rank in search results.
To solve this problem, the rel=canonical tag is used to specify the URL of the preferred or canonical version of the page, and to indicate to search engines which version of the page should be indexed and shown in search results. The rel=canonical tag is typically placed in the <head> section of the page’s HTML code, and it looks like this:
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/page.html" />
Overall, the rel=canonical tag is a valuable tool for website owners who want to ensure that search engines and users access the correct version of a webpage, and that the webpage’s content is properly indexed and ranked in search results. By using the rel=canonical tag, website owners can avoid duplicate content issues, and improve the visibility and ranking of their pages in search results.