Does canonical pass link juice?

Rel=canonical is an HTML tag that solves the problem of duplicate content. The tag tells Google and other search engines which page is the original (or canonical) version. The search engine then knows to index only the canonical page, and all the “link juice” to the duplicate page gets passed to the canonical page.

Do I need a canonical tag?

You should be adding a canonical tag wherever you have duplicate content on your site. Similar content: Let’s say you have an e-commerce store with products that are very similar but may have slight differences between them. In this case, most SEO experts say you should use canonical tags.

How important are canonical tags?

The canonical tag is an important part of letting Google know which site is original and should be ranked as such and which pages should be disregarded. Without this tag, Google is left guessing, which lowers the rankings of your site.

What are Canonical links in SEO?

A canonical tag (aka “rel canonical”) is a way of telling search engines that a specific URL represents the master copy of a page. Practically speaking, the canonical tag tells search engines which version of a URL you want to appear in search results.

Do I need a canonical URL?

Google’s John Mueller says that while not mandatory, self-referential canonical tags are recommended. I recommend [using a] self-referential canonical because it really makes it clear to us which page you want to have indexed, or what the URL should be when it is indexed.

Are canonical URLs indexed?

In other words, if you have the same or similar content available under different URLs, you can use canonical tags to specify which version is the main one and thus, should be indexed.

What is link rel alternate?

Link rel=alternate tells the user (search engines) that there is an other URL with the same content but in an other form (eg. language, mobile.).