Canonical URLs: How Does Google Pick the One?

In this episode of Ask Google Webmasters, John Mueller discusses how Google Search chooses a canonical URL from similar or duplicate pages.

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[le.hazmel]

I couldn't stop looking at his t-shirt the whole video xD

[ShawnPowrie]

Hi Google team. This content format is awesome and useful, more useful than the lengthy "hangouts" that you guys do :) because they focus on being clear on one particular topic really concisely. Thanks!

[GoMotoTube]

the explanation was great, however I wish there was more detail on how to let search engines know which URL to use.

[ryanmccain]

I love these. At a minimum, they confirm things.

[davidespinoza]

how do duplicate pages even happen? I guess I'm confused why Google would have to make a choice between duplicate pages; like where did the duplicate come from? What are some examples of duplicate pages happening if I didn't make them or am not aware of duplicate pages. I'm coming from the perspective of working on a Squarespace site and know there isn't duplicate pages.

[avneet]

A have 26 canonical URLs on my site and in search console it's showing those URL's as "excluded", my Alexa is also dropping each day and I have have quality unique content on each URL? Should I put a 301 redirect to all of em??

[stefanpfadt]

Hi, just wondering if with Google`s mobile-first approach its recommended to switch canonical tags also to the mobile version?

[majesticfloors]

It's saying url is not in Google duplicate without user selected canonical. I though Google.would choose then

[rahatali]

Google has chosen another canonical URL which caused a duplicate page. You said it doesn't affect anything? Will it be changed after?

[shreyaspuri]

thanks! looks like you joined from Microsoft and were forced to wear a t-shirt now that you are in google! ;) Just kidding ... ! Great Content!

[reysumayo]

how about We have found a Canonical Meta Tag, but it points to a different URL. This means that this page will not be indexable. when I use RYTE?

[AmirKhan-ykix]

so it means this doesnot effect ur ranking
but it exclude the pages

[soniwadhwani]

Hi
Google changed my sites preferred canonical and my rankings drastically Fell. Please let me know what to do

[slimnics]

This happens with tags and catagories in wordpress . What plug in do you use to add the canonical ?

[stevebertobertolacci]

Where do we find the no-connection chrome t-shirt?

[praveenkumar-tzuz]

When we use canonical tag, in sitemap it is showing could not fetch sitemap, what is the reason for this

[leandromad]

What if my page is a landing page (single page)?

[rwnihal]

Is that tshirt available on Google sites ? 😀

[nander]

Tip: try to watch this in 1.25 or 1.50

[misterpaijo]

Hi john, what its that canonical url? Thanks