As Wikipedia defines canonicalization, especially for search engines and search engine optimization (SEO):

In web search and search engine optimization (SEO), URL canonicalization deals with web content that has more than one possible URL. Having multiple URLs for the same web content can cause problems for search engines – specifically in determining which URL should be shown in search results.

For example, WP Addict could be listed as:

http://www.wpaddict.net

OR

http://wpaddict.net

The problem is that is that search engines merely split the content results between the two URLS if I were a person to be wishy washy and not define where users and search engines should be linking. I have to determine the primary entry point to the site, which in my case would be http://wpaddict.net.

You want the search engines to find one place to your site and not fragment visitors who have come in from a search engine in any way with a slightly different from the main URL of your site. Some people fear that this could cause duplicate content.

There are a couple ways to help with this in WordPress

1. .htaccess – You are telling your own server that you are hosted on where your main URL is at. Add the following into your .htaccess file:


RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^YOURURLHERE\.URLEXTENSION$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.YOURFULLURLHERE/$1 [R=301,L]


Replace YOURURLHERE with your URL name and URLEXTENSION with your extension like .com, .net, .org, etc….

Replace YOURFULLURLHERE with your full URL name, and no, you do not need to put it in uppercase as I have. Lowercase may be best.

2. Your can download Joost de Valk’s WordPress plug called Canonical URLs.

Please note that Google does not penalize for duplicate content, rather more so if you spam. So, if you are a blogger who has allowed a person to cross post an article on another site, you might not be penalized. However, you will be penalized if you are posting your material in places that are not relevant to your article(s).

Do you have any other solutions to canonicalization for your WordPress Blog?

Related posts:

1. What Is the Best Permalink Structure in WordPress?