An HTML tag (rel="canonical") that tells search engines which version of a page is the “master” copy when duplicate or near-duplicate content exists at multiple URLs. Canonical tags consolidate ranking signals onto one URL instead of splitting them across near-identical pages — common with URL parameters, print versions, or syndicated content. Getting canonicals wrong (pointing them at the wrong page, or omitting them) is one of the most frequent causes of duplicate-content and indexing problems in Search Console. See canonical tags explained and fixing “duplicate without user-selected canonical”.
Part of the Plain Intelligence glossary. See all terms.