I've heard people mention the Canonical URL tag but I don't know what it means or what its purpose is.
What is it and how does it effect SEO?
+1
A:
A quick Google search revealed these:
Basically, it's used when you have different URLs that point to the same content, without actually redirecting. So let's say your domain is example.com. www.example.com and example.com are two different URLs, and if you don't redirect them all to a "standard" (canonical) URL (example.com), search engines treat the two URLs as completely different pages. This causes the popularity of the two URLs to be split (i.e. they don't share any link popularity), which is obviously very bad for SEO.
musicfreak
2009-06-26 05:11:53
@musicfreak, if you can incorporate some of the info from those URLs into your answer it would be for the best. External links die, decay and we are attempting to have a comprehensive knowledge base here.
Simucal
2009-06-26 05:14:13
I'm working on it, hold your horses. ;)
musicfreak
2009-06-26 05:15:22
One of the huge reasons for wanting to use Canonical URL's is if you have 2 different URLs pointing to the same content then their search value/weight can be split up between them. Because it is split up between the two URLs it can lower the position your results are shown.
Simucal
2009-06-26 05:17:43
@musicfreak, +1, good edits.
Simucal
2009-06-26 05:18:15