What is a canonical tag?
A canonical tag points search engines to the main version of a page. When the same content appears at several URLs, the tag tells Google which one to treat as the original.
This generator produces a self-referencing canonical by default, which is the right choice for most pages. You can also set a different canonical URL and add an hreflang for alternate language versions.
How to use this generator
- Enter the URL of the page.
- Leave the canonical field empty for a self-referencing tag.
- Or enter a different URL if a duplicate version exists.
- Add an hreflang and alternate URL for translated pages.
- Copy the generated tag and paste it into the page head.
When canonical tags matter most
- E-commerce sites with the same product on many URLs.
- Blogs with both tag archives and full posts covering the same topic.
- Sites serving www and non-www versions without redirects.
- Pages that generate filtered or sorted versions of one list.
A quick note on hreflang
Hreflang tells Google that a page has versions in other languages or regions. It pairs nicely with canonical tags when you run a multi-language site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. A self-referencing canonical on every page is the safest practice, even when no duplicates exist.
Google decides the main URL itself, and sometimes it picks a version you did not expect, especially when duplicates exist.
A redirect moves visitors and crawlers to one URL. A canonical only tells crawlers which URL is the original while both stay accessible.
Inside the head of the page, ideally near the title tag. It is read by search engines, not shown to visitors.
It signals that the same content exists in another language or region, helping Google serve the right version to the right audience.
Technically yes, but Google treats cross-domain canonicals as hints and may ignore them. A proper redirect is more reliable.
No. A redirect changes the address the browser sees. A canonical only guides search engines about which URL to index.