Canonical links, robots directives, and basic metadata

Duplicate URLs happen

These can all show the same page:

https://example.com/pili-tarts/
https://www.example.com/pili-tarts/
https://example.com/pili-tarts/?utm_source=facebook
https://example.com/pili-tarts/?sort=price

Search engines may see four pages. A canonical tag points them all to one preferred version, which consolidates signals like links.

The canonical tag

<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/pili-tarts/">

• Put it in the head.
• Use the full absolute URL with https.
• Point each normal page to itself, called a self-referencing canonical.
• Make sure the target page returns status 200 and is not set to noindex.

A canonical is a strong hint, not a command. Google can choose a different canonical if signals disagree.

Meta robots directives

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow">

Directive	Meaning	Use for
noindex	Do not show this page in search results	Thank you pages, internal search results, test pages
nofollow	Do not follow links on this page	Rarely needed site-wide
noarchive	Do not show a cached copy	Pages with changing prices
max-snippet:50	Limit snippet length	Special cases

Pages are indexable by default, so you only add robots tags to change that. Important: robots.txt blocks crawling, while noindex blocks indexing. If robots.txt blocks a page, Google cannot see its noindex tag.

hreflang and structured data

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-PH" href="https://example.com/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fil-PH" href="https://example.com/fil/">

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Bakery",
  "name": "Mayon Bakeshop",
  "telephone": "+639171234567",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "addressLocality": "Legazpi City",
    "addressRegion": "Albay",
    "addressCountry": "PH"
  }
}
</script>

hreflang links language versions of a page, like English and Filipino. Structured data in JSON-LD describes your business, products, FAQs, or courses using Schema.org vocabulary, which can earn rich results. Test it with Google’s Rich Results Test.

Try it: set up SEO metadata

Add a self-referencing canonical for https://example.com/thank-you/ and a meta robots tag that keeps the page out of search but lets links be followed.

Quick quiz

Common mistakes

• Canonical to a redirected or noindex page. Mixed signals make Google ignore your canonical.
• noindex on important pages. A leftover noindex from a staging site can remove pages from Google.
• Blocking noindex pages in robots.txt. Google cannot read a noindex it cannot crawl.
• Relative canonical URLs. Use full absolute URLs.

Your action

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