How to Use Canonical URLs to Avoid Duplicate Content

Duplicate content can negatively impact your website's search engine rankings. To help prevent this, the Awesome URL module offers tools to check for and manage duplicate URLs, as well as configure Canonical URLs. This guide will walk you through these processes to ensure your site maintains a strong SEO performance.

Checking for duplicate URLs

Awesome URL helps you check and detect all duplicate URLs on your site to prevent penalties from search engines. From the check result, you can decide how to solve these duplicate URLs and improve your SEO score.

Steps to check for duplicate URLs:

Step 1: Open the module configuration page.

Step 2: Click the "Check duplicate URLs" tab on the module main menu.

Step 3: Review duplicate URLs: The module will display a list of any duplicate URLs on your site.

Step 4: For each product duplicate URL, click "View" to go to the product editing page.

Step 5: Click the "SEO" tab on the product editing page and edit the product link in the "Friendly URL" field to resolve the duplication.

Configuring Canonical URLs

What are Canonical URLs

Canonical URLs indicate the preferred version of a web page when multiple URLs have similar or identical content. If a page URL has different parameters, the Canonical URL will display the same for all URLs of this page. Canonical URLs help Googlebot avoid spending crawling time on duplicate pages. You can customize the Canonical URL you want search engines to display in search results.

Example:

Multiple URLs: http://example.com/product?color=red | http://example.com/product?color=blue

Canonical URL: http://example.com/product

Steps to configure Canonical URLs

Step 1: Go to "Catalog > Products" in the PrestaShop admin panel.

Step 2: Click "Edit" for the product you want to configure the Canonical URL for.

Step 3: Click the "SEO" tab. Scroll down to find the "Canonical URL" field.

Step 4: Enter the canonical URL that this page should point to. Leave it empty to default to the current page link. Cross-domain canonical URLs are supported too.

Example:

If the product page URL is http://example.com/product?variant=123, set the Canonical URL to http://example.com/product

By following this guide, you'll be able to check for duplicate URLs and configure Canonical URLs to enhance your site's SEO. The Awesome URL module makes it simple to manage your URLs effectively, helping you maintain a strong presence in search engine results.