# Canonical URL

> A tag naming the one 'real' address for content reachable at several URLs — so search engines rank the copy you meant, once.

The same page typically lives at many addresses: with and without www, with tracking parameters, with a trailing slash, in HTTP and HTTPS. Without a canonical each variant competes with itself for ranking; the tag says 'credit everything to this one'.

It is a hint, not a redirect — the URLs still work, the signals consolidate. On a multilingual site it pairs with hreflang: the canonical picks the true URL per language, hreflang picks the language per user. Pointing the canonical at a different page than the one served is the classic way to quietly deindex yourself.

## Related terms

- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/hreflang.md
- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/redirect-301.md
- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/seo.md

---

Source: https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/canonical-url
DField Solutions — Dunakeszi, Hungary — dezso@dfieldsolutions.com
Booking: see https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/contact