Canonical URL (rel="canonical")
type: TechArticle
description: Declare the preferred URL for a page so search engines and crawlers consolidate ranking signals on one address, even when several URLs serve the same content.
language: en
is part of: Web Specification Studio
author: Web Specification Studio
publisher: Web Specification Studio
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date modified: 2026-07-09T00:00:00.000Z
citation: RFC 6596 — The Canonical Link Relation
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: IETF
citation: MDN — rel=canonical
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: MDN
citation: Google — Consolidate duplicate URLs with canonicals
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: Google Search Central
citation: HTML Living Standard — Link types: canonical
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: WHATWG

Web Specification Studio
type: WebSite

Web Specification Studio
type: Organization

breadcrumb
type: BreadcrumbList
item list element: Home
  type: ListItem
  position: 1
  item: https://webspecification.com/
item list element: Spec
  type: ListItem
  position: 2
  item: https://webspecification.com/spec/
item list element: Foundations
  type: ListItem
  position: 3
  item: https://webspecification.com/spec/foundations/
item list element: Canonical URL (rel="canonical")
  type: ListItem
  position: 4
  item: https://webspecification.com/spec/foundations/canonical-url/