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Glossary

Canonical URL

The URL Google should treat as the master version of a page, declared via `<link rel="canonical">` and (ideally) consistent across HTTP headers, sitemap, and hreflang annotations.

A canonical URL is the URL you've nominated as the authoritative version of a page. Search engines consolidate ranking signals (links, mentions, clicks) onto the canonical and treat duplicates as the same content.

Set it via:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/blog/post" />

Common pitfalls: trailing slashes, casing, query parameters, and language variants. A wrong canonical is the single most common reason a page silently de-indexes.