SEO

Technical audit of a website is the basis of effective SEO promotion. Even the most beautiful and selling website will not bring clients if it has technical errors. Regular testing helps identify problems and improve search engine rankings.

1. Website Loading Speed
Fast loading is one of the key ranking factors. If a site takes longer than 2-3 seconds to load, users leave and rankings drop. It's important to optimize your images, code and server.

2. Adaptation for mobile devices
Most users log in from their phones. The site must display correctly on all devices and work quickly on mobile devices.

3. Page Indexing
Check that all important pages are indexed by search engines. Errors in the robots.txt file or meta tags can prevent your site from being detected by Google.

4. Errors and Broken Links
Having 404 pages and broken links degrades the user experience and negatively impacts SEO. They need to be found and corrected regularly.

5. Site Structure and URL
Clear structure and clear URLs help search engines understand your site better. Page addresses must be logical and contain keywords.

6. SSL Certificate (HTTPS)
Security is an important factor. The site must be running over HTTPS, otherwise users may see warnings about an insecure connection.

7. Duplicate pages
Duplicate content can lower your site's rankings. It is important to set up canonical links and eliminate duplicate pages.

Technical audit is a mandatory stage for any website. It helps eliminate errors, improve SEO and increase the number of customers. If you want to get the maximum result, it is better to entrust the audit to specialists and correct all shortcomings in a timely manner.

What is a Canonical URL

Canonical URL is a special tag that tells search engines which version of a page is the main one if a website has multiple pages with identical or very similar content.

It is used to combat duplicate content, which can negatively impact SEO.

The canonical tag is specified in the page's HTML code and looks like this:

This tag tells search engines like Google and Yandex that this specific URL should be considered the primary one.

Why a Canonical URL is needed

1. Solves the problem of page duplicates

Identical pages with different URLs may appear on the website. For example:

The search engine may treat them as different pages.

Canonical indicates that there is only one main page.

2. Passes SEO weight to the main page

If multiple pages have the same content, links can be distributed among them.

Canonical helps to pass all SEO weight to a single page, which improves its rankings.

3. Helps with proper indexing

Search engines understand:

• which page to index
• which pages to consider duplicates
• which page to show in search results

When to use Canonical

Canonical is useful in the following cases:

1. Pages with parameters

For example:

Canonical points to the main page.

2. Online stores

In stores using WooCommerce, a single product can be located in multiple categories:

Canonical helps choose the main product page.

3. Page duplicates

For example:

Canonical indicates which version is the main one.

How to add a Canonical URL

1. Via WordPress SEO plugins

If the site runs on WordPress, canonical is added automatically via SEO plugins:

• Yoast SEO
• Rank Math
• All in One SEO

These plugins automatically add a canonical tag for each page.

2. Add manually

You can add the tag to the <head> section of the page:

Canonical vs Redirect

Many people confuse canonical and redirect.

The difference:

Canonical

• tells search engines the main page
• the user can open different URLs

301 Redirect

• completely redirects the user
• the old URL is no longer used

Common Canonical Errors

1. Specifying the wrong URL

Canonical must point to a real, existing page.

2. Canonical to another page without reason

If the pages are different, canonical should not be used.

3. Mismatch between canonical and sitemap

The sitemap.xml file should contain only canonical pages.

How to check Canonical

You can check it in several ways:

1. open the page source code
2. find the canonical tag

or use tools:

Google Search Console

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

A Canonical URL is an important technical SEO tool that helps search engines correctly determine the main page of a website.

It allows you to:

• avoid page duplicates
• pass SEO weight to the main page
• improve website indexing

Canonical is especially important for:

• online stores
• large websites
• websites with URL parameters