Turning on Canonical Link Meta Tag For Categories

[salessparefd20]

Hi Guys

I've been reading about turning on Canonical Link Meta Tag For Categories & Products

The documentation I have read simply says turn this on, my question is, once it is turned on will I then need to specify/update my products with the Canonical link or will Magento generate this for me?

If Magento generates this for me, will it be the deepest/most nested version of the URL?

Also What will happen to my SEO rankings if the page Magento sets is different to the page that Google etc has picked as the best link?

[toniagency82ed]

Magento will set it automatically once you turn this on.

Whether you should or should not turn this on is not something that can be answered without a lot of context, depending on your specific needs and SEO objectives. It requires consultations with technical SEO specialist for your specific case.

[PacoAbellaT]

Hi @salessparefd20 

Here's a step-by-step guide to help you set it up:

1. Navigate to Configuration Settings:

   • Go to the left sidebar, click on 'Stores' or 'System' (depending on your Magento version).
   • Under the 'Settings' section, select 'Configuration'.

2. Access the SEO Settings:

   • In the Configuration panel, under the 'Catalog' section, click on 'Catalog'.
   • Then, find the 'Search Engine Optimization' section. This is where you'll configure the canonical tags.

3. Configure Canonical Tags:

   • Here, you will find options for 'Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Categories' and 'Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Products'.
   • Set both of these options to 'Yes' to enable canonical tags for category and product pages.

4. Save Your Configuration:

   • After making these changes, click on the 'Save Config' button in the upper right corner to apply your settings.

5. Flush the Cache:

   • It's important to flush your Magento cache to ensure that your changes take effect.
   • Go to 'System' > 'Cache Management', and click on 'Flush Magento Cache'.

6. Check the Frontend:

   • Finally, visit your store's frontend and inspect the page source of your product and category pages.
   • You should now see a canonical tag in the head section of your HTML, pointing to the preferred URL of the page.

Keep in Mind:

• Magento automatically generates the canonical URLs based on the direct path to the product or category page.
• There’s usually no need to manually set these URLs unless you have specific customizations or SEO strategies in place.
• Canonical tags are more about guiding search engines to avoid duplicate content issues and may not directly influence your site’s navigation or user experience.

Paco Abella

https://www.magento-specialist.com/

[salessparefd20]

Hi Paco

Thanks for this, I will follow these steps if/when I carry this out.

[salessparefd20]

The SEO Ranking Question is next on my list

According to Google Search Console currently I have over 86,000 URL's/Products  that are not being indexed due to "Duplicate without user-selected canonical"

So my assumption would be I turn on the feature in Magento and it creates Canonical links and then Google will then index the pages.

But my 2nd question on this is, what will happen to the products which are being currently indexed and have no Cano links, when all my products get them, will their rankings simply pass to the preferred Cano link instead?

[PacoAbellaT]

Hi @salessparefd20 

Enabling canonical tags in Magento will help Google identify the preferred URLs for your products, potentially resolving the "Duplicate without user-selected canonical" issue. This change should gradually lead to better indexing of your pages. For products already indexed without canonical links, the introduction of canonical tags can consolidate SEO signals to the preferred URLs, which may initially cause some ranking fluctuations but ultimately should enhance overall SEO performance.

If you need more advanced functionalities compared to canonical, you can use this module. It has given me very good results.

https://www.mageworx.com/magento-2-seo-extension.html

I would first try the native Magento feature, watch the results in 2-3 weeks and if the result is not good, I would try the extension.

Paco Abella
https://magento-specialist.com/

[salessparefd20]

Hi Guys

just a little update, so this morning I enabled the settings and followed the steps provided above, and indeed the tag is now appearing :-)

However I was a little disappointed that the Cano link provided by Magento is this:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.sparetoolparts.co.uk/hitachi-cg-14dsdl-spare-parts-list.html" />

But the URL I'm currently at is and the one I want to be used as my Cano link is:

https://www.sparetoolparts.co.uk/hitachi/lawn-garden/brush-cutter/hitachi-cg-14dsdl-spare-parts-list...

I would assume that the best link is always going to be the deepest most Siloed with Bread crumbs etc and all the other nice navigation information a spider can eat up.

So my question is, should I stick with what Magento is suggesting or go with what I think is right? If so I assume I can simply update the attribute field for Cano link with my preferred choice?

[toniagency82ed]

That's because https://www.sparetoolparts.co.uk/hitachi/lawn-garden/brush-cutter/hitachi-cg-14dsdl-spare-parts-list... is a product, not a category, and it is properly canonicalising it to the root version of the URL to avoid duplicate content if this product was assigned to multiple categories.

This is why I said it's not very straightforward, the implementation of this depends on many specifics of your website and what you're trying to achieve. This is not technically wrong, but might be wrong in your specific case.

[PacoAbellaT]

Hi @salessparefd20 

As @toniagency82ed  say , SEO strategies are very personalized, and require analysis from a professional.

You can try this. In Magento, configuring product URLs without including categories in the path is a common practice to simplify URLs and improve SEO structure. Here's how you can do it:

1. Access the Admin Panel:

   • Log in to your Magento store's admin panel.

2. Navigate to URL Configuration:

   • Go to Stores > Configuration > Catalog > Catalog.

3. Configure Catalog URL Options:

   • Within the catalog configuration section, look for the Search Engine Optimization group.
   • Here, you will find the option Use Categories Path for Product URLs.
   • Set this option to "No" to prevent categories from being included in product URLs.