The past few months working for a major eCommerce client inspired me to write this piece :-). I will discuss how we prevent Magento from generating duplicate content for the same product.

Below are some FAQs we will address:

  • Where should I place the canonical code?
  • Is it a good idea to place a canonical tag from the *original product page* on your affiliate site?
  • When you have multiple websites selling the same product - does Google prefer a noindex tag or a canonical tag?

‘Duplicate content’ is one of the most common SEO pitfalls that many e-commerce sites face. Web pages are considered duplicates if their content is 85% identical. Having duplicate content can negatively impact SEO.

Search engine algorithms are capable of discovering websites that have multiple URLs pointing to the same information and penalizing them. Google removes URLs from the index due to duplication.

I get it, you're not e-commerce platform experts, and you shouldn't have to be. Your job is to be an expert in what your company does. Magento does not default to using canonical tags.

5 Reasons that Make Magento 2 Popular

  1. If you're in a controversial or high-risk industry, Magento is flexible.
  2. In some cases, you need a lot of control, such as in the pharmaceutical industry, having your own tech stack or servers is very important.
  3. B2B custom user experiences.
  4. Flexibility and scalability for building an empire. World domination!
  5. More functionality.

Magento is often considered a challenging eCommerce platform, especially in terms of SEO.

PROBLEM

It's very possible that the developer setting up your webshop has created multiple pages for the same purpose

Look at the following URL: 

*https://mijnwinkel.nl/contact

*https://mijnwinkel.nl/contact/

*https://mijnwinkel.com/nl/index

*https://mijnwinkel.nl/contact/index/index

‍SOLUTION

Use canonical URL to prevent duplicate content <head> <link rel="canonical" href="https://mijnwinkel.nl/contact" />  </head>

These types of URL paths are default settings in Magento. You should customize them where possible. Go to Stores > Configuration > General and click on the Web tab.

The canonical tag should be used for pages that are an exact duplicate so that search engines know which one to use/index within the search engine.

Looking to create SEO-friendly URLs for products? This article provides the best information.

canonical tag - groove-digital

You can also use the canonical tag to tell search engines which is the best version of a page or post. 

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illustratie hoe canonical tag werkt

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When Google thinks you're deliberately applying SEO tricks.

Google displays only one duplicate page, filtering out all other landing pages from the index and search results, you have no choice which one is ranked. In some cases, duplicate content can be seen as manipulating search results, resulting in your website receiving a lower position or even being banned.

Let's chat? Add me on LinkedIn!

Solution to Most Issues

There can be many issues in your websites that you need to figure out and fix. One of them is having different URLs leading to the same page or having duplicate content on different URLs.

Here are a few ways to solve duplicate content issues:

  • Add a rel="canonical" link to one of your duplicate pages to inform search engines which page to show in search results.
  • Use a 301 redirect from a duplicate page to the original page.
  • Use rel="next" and rel="prev" link attributes to solve pagination duplicates.
  • Instruct GoogleBot to treat URL parameters differently with Google Search Console.
  • Ensure unique content on the webpage
  • For more information, read these articles: "Duplicate content" and "Consolidating duplicate URLs"

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Enable Canonical Tag Magento 2

‍When it comes to Magento stores , we usually use the canonical tag. It resolves many of the duplicate content issues.

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Helpful Links

For those sellers looking to optimize their Magento 2 websites for SEO, this resource by Amasty seems to be a good starting point.

FAQ

‍Where should I place the canonical code?

Rel=canonical should only be in the <head> of a document. A canonical tag in the <body> section of a page will be ignored.

‍When you have multiple sites selling the same product - does Google prefer a noindex tag or a canonical? Same info on both sites.

If you own both domains, consider which website you want to give more authority. You can then refer to it with the canonical tag. Also, it doesn't hurt to write slightly different product information for the products.

But what if you have pages you want indexed, but they're flagged as duplicates?

Depending on your URL structure, this can happen with product pages, for example. Use the canonical tag

I hope the article was helpful for you! Wishing you success with your Magento 2 SEO strategy. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask: mohamed@groove-digital.nl

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