My simple recommendation is to add a Canonical URL Tag to every page!
<link rel='canonical' href='...' />
It’s the single most crucial tag to help Google’s crawler understand your website and improve your SEO.
The canonical tag will tell the Google crawler that a set of pages that differ only in their URLs are, in fact, a single page, and that there is no need to index all of them. The Canonical URL will point to the favorite URL to access them; in particular, the URL Google should use when returning the pages as search results.
If you are using a CMS like WordPress, you don’t have to worry! The system usually automatically adds the canonical tag to every page.
So, What Exactly is a Canonical Tag?
Think of a canonical tag (it looks like rel="canonical" in your HTML) as a polite note left for the Google crawler. It tells search engines, “Hey, I know this page looks exactly like three other pages on my site, but this URL right here is the official master copy. Please index this one and pass all the SEO juice to it.”
In eCommerce, this is a lifesaver. Because of product variations or tracking parameters added to URLs, a single product can end up with five different web addresses. To a search engine, that looks like spammy, duplicate content. By placing a canonical tag in the backend code of your duplicate pages that points back to your main product URL, you prevent Google from getting confused, avoid duplicate content penalties, and ensure your search rankings aren’t split across identical pages. It’s an invisible but crucial traffic cop for your store’s SEO.
More Tips
To learn about the other two crucial tags, <title> and <meta name=’description’>, read my eCommerce Tip: Title tag and meta description are strategic for your SEO.
