Comments on: Where Can the Canonical Tag Be Actually Used?

By: Alan Perkins

Alan Perkins — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:26:09 +0000

There are some scenarios where only the rel=canonical tag will work.

An example would be a page that had the Google Analytics utm_ parameters in the URL. If you redirect to a URL without those parameters, you’ll break Analytics. If you don’t redirect, you’ll run into canonical issues.

More detail is available at the link in my sig.

By: Neil Turner

Neil Turner — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:42:46 +0000

I think there are many situations where the tag can be used. Fore example, if you have a page that displays a set of results – and filters to allow users to reorder those results (which affect the URL of the page) – you could use the tag.

By: Justin March

Justin March — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:16:28 +0000

Wait and see seems to be the correct modus operandi excepting in a few instances when 301 redirects are not appropriate (PPC landing pages that have unexpectedly gained inbound links for example)

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:04:50 +0000

I recently switched to WP2.7, and google started indexing comment urls, comment pages – and horror, stopped indexing altogether. After a lot of attempts, I tried a canonical plugin – and the next post onwards, indexing problems vanished.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:59:47 +0000

it should be used with care

i wrote a post about using it in blogs

everyone seems to be using it the WRONG WAY

http://centuryhouse.net/canonicalization-element/

By: lohith

lohith — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:47:01 +0000

I will wait and watch the performance of this tag.

By: Jai

Jai — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:48:45 +0000

I read here that canonical tags created by SEO plugins need to used with care or they can mess your pagerann.