Canonical tags: telling Google which page is the real one.
Most pages can be reached at more than one address: with and without www, with a trailing slash, with tracking codes on the end. The canonical tag tells Google which one is the real page. Point it at the wrong place and Google obligingly ranks the wrong place, or nothing.
IN ONE PARAGRAPH
The canonical tag is a line in a page's code naming the page's official address. It exists because the same page is often reachable at several addresses and Google needs to know which one to credit. Every page should carry a canonical pointing at its own clean address. A missing canonical lets Google guess. A canonical pointing at a different page, which happens when templates copy it from the homepage, tells Google not to rank this page at all. We check every page for a missing canonical and for one that points anywhere other than the page itself.
What the tag does
In the code: <link rel="canonical" href="https://snowypeaksrvpark.com/cabins">. It says: whatever address you reached this page by, this is its real one. Google consolidates all the variants onto that address and ranks it. It is how a site avoids competing with itself when the same page exists at snowypeaksrvpark.com/cabins, www.snowypeaksrvpark.com/cabins, and snowypeaksrvpark.com/cabins/?utm=facebook.
What it looks like on a park website
- No canonical anywhere, so Google splits credit between the www and non-www versions of every page.
- Every page's canonical points at the homepage, because the template copied the homepage's tag. Google reads that as "do not rank the cabins page, rank the homepage," and the cabins page disappears.
- The canonical points at the old domain after a move, so the new site tells Google the old site is the real one.
- The canonical uses http while the site is https, so it points at a redirect.
What it costs a park
The cabins-pointing-to-homepage case is the expensive one. The page exists, guests can use it, and Google refuses to rank it because its own code says not to. Parks have had a cabins page for years that never appeared for "cabins near" searches for exactly this reason. The split-credit case is subtler: the page ranks, but lower than it would if all its signals were counted together.
How to check your own site
- View the source of a page and search for rel="canonical". There should be one, and its address should be this page's own address, exactly, with https and the right www choice.
- Do it for three or four pages. If they all name the homepage, the template is wrong.
- In Google Search Console, look for pages marked "Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user." That is Google disagreeing with your tags.
What we do about it
Every page we build carries a canonical to its own clean address, generated from the page itself so it cannot be copied wrong. The site answers on one host, the other forwards, and the canonical matches. When we take over a site, canonicals are checked page by page, because a template error is one line and affects every page.
Questions about this.
What is a canonical tag?
A line in a page's code naming the page's official address, so search engines know which of several possible addresses to credit and rank.
What happens if the canonical points to the wrong page?
Google treats the page as a duplicate of the one it points to and stops ranking it. This commonly happens when a template copies the homepage's canonical onto every page.
Does every page need a canonical tag?
Yes, and it should point at the page's own address. Without one, Google guesses, and it may split credit across variants of the address.
Should the canonical use www or not?
Whichever version the site actually answers on. Pick one, forward the other to it, and make every canonical match.
Want this checked on your park site?
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Part of the RV park SEO guide, section: The technical check. Previous: Robots meta tag: the fastest way to vanish from Google. Next: Open Graph image: what shows when a guest shares your park.