As an experienced CMS website operation person, I am well aware of the importance of content creation and publication, and I also know how to stand out in search engines through refined operation.In everyday work, duplicate content is a frequently ignored issue that can seriously affect the SEO performance of a website.Fortunately, the "specification link" (Canonical URL) feature built into Anqi CMS provides us with an elegant and efficient solution.

Understanding the challenges of duplicate content and search engine optimization

Before discussing solutions, we first need to understand what duplicate content is and why it poses a challenge to search engine optimization.Content duplication refers to the occurrence of the same or extremely similar text content on different URLs.

  • URL parameters：URL parameters used for tracking, sorting, or filtering content (such asexample.com/product?color=redandexample.com/product).
  • Print-friendly page：An independent page generated for printing.
  • Protocol differencesEnglish versionhttp://andhttps://version page.
  • Session ID: Session ID added to the URL when the user visits the website.
  • Multi-version page：Display the same article or product under different categories, resulting in multiple URLs.

When a search engine spider encounters multiple URLs pointing to the same content, it can be confused. This can lead to several issues:

  1. 分散排名信号English external links and social sharing ranking signals may be dispersed across multiple duplicate pages, rather than concentrated on a single authoritative page.
  2. Reduce crawling efficiencyEnglish: Search engines will spend more time crawling duplicate content than discovering and indexing new and valuable content on websites.
  3. English: Indexing issuesThe search engine may not be able to determine which version is the 'authoritative' version, thus may index incorrect pages, or even completely ignore all duplicate pages.
  4. User experience is compromised：Users may access the same content through different URLs or see multiple similar links in search results.

These issues will ultimately affect the visibility and ranking of the website in search engines.

The 'Standard Links' feature of Anqi CMS

The 'AnQi CMS' is designed to solve such operational pain points. Among them is the 'Canonical URL', which is<link rel="canonical" href="URL" />Tags, are an important signal to search engines that declare a page as the preferred (authoritative) version.Even if there are multiple similar pages, we can explicitly tell the search engine which URL is the core version of the content through this tag, thus avoiding the above SEO issues.

In the Auto CMS, setting up standard links is very intuitive.When creating and editing content, you can go to the "Document Management" section and enter the interface to add a document or edit an existing document.On the "Other Parametershttps://en.anqicms.com/article/98This feature is not only applicable to articles, but also to other modules that may contain duplicate content.

Utilize Canonical URL to Optimize TDK and Avoid Duplicate Content

TDK (Title, Description, Keywords) is the 'business card' of a webpage on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), crucial for attracting user clicks.The auto CMS provides comprehensive TDK management functions, from global settings to specific content, category, and tag pages, all can be fine-tuned.

  1. TDK Management Review:

    • Home TDKConfigure the title, keywords, and description of the website homepage in "Background Settings" -> "Homepage TDK Settings".
    • Content TDKIn the "Document Management" -> "Add Document
    • Category TDKSet "SEO title", "keywords", and "category description" in the "other parameters" under "Content Management" > "Document Category".
    • Tag TDKIn the "Content Management" -> "Document Tags
    • Single Page TDKSet "SEO title", "keywords", and "single-page introduction" in "Page resources" -> "Page management".

  2. Canonical URL and TDK combination： The main function of the standard link is to inform search engines which page is the authoritative version, thus ensuring that all ranking signals point to this authoritative page and effectively utilize its TDK information, avoiding dilution due to duplicate content. By setting a unique TDK on the authoritative page and specifying it as the standard URL, we can:

    • Unified ranking signal：All external links and internal links pointing to non-standard URLs will ultimately pass their weight to the standard URL, thereby improving the TDK performance of the authoritative page in search engines.
    • Avoid TDK conflictWhen there are multiple similar pages but each page has different TDK settings, search engines may become confused.Canonical URL helps search engines clearly identify which page's TDK we need to display in the SERP.
    • Ensure content valueEnsure that the titles and descriptions we carefully write will not be ignored or misinterpreted by search engines due to content duplication.

  3. Call the standard link in the template in English： In the template design of Anqi CMS, we can dynamically output standard links through the universal TDK tag. Usually, this tag is placed in the HTML page.<head>Part.

    {%- tdk canonical with name="CanonicalUrl" %}
{%- if canonical %}
<link rel="canonical" href="{{canonical}}" />
{%- endif %}

    The meaning of this code is: first, it tries to get the value of the "standard link" field of the current page throughtdkthe tagCanonicalUrl), and assign it to the variable.canonicalThen, it checkscanonicalThe variable exists and has a value. If it exists, it will be rendered on the page.<head>partially.<link rel="canonical" href="[您的规范链接]" />Label. This conditional judgment style is very important, it can ensure that this label is only output on pages that have explicitly set the specification link, thus avoiding unnecessary HTML code.

**Practice and Strategy**

To make full use of the specification link function of the security CMS, we should follow the following **practice**:

  • Always specify the specification URLEven if a page seems to have no duplicate items, it is recommended to specify a standard URL for it, that is, its own URL. This helps to avoid unexpected duplicates that may occur in the future.
  • Use absolute path: The specified URL must be a complete, absolute path (for examplehttps://en.anqicms.com/article/example), rather than a relative path.
  • Ensure protocol consistencyIf your website uses HTTPS, make sure all standard URLs use the HTTPS protocol.
  • Avoid chaining normalizationAvoid the situation where page A points to page B, and page B points to page C. Standardization should directly point to the final authoritative page.
  • Handle pagination and parameterized URLsFor pages containing pagination (such as/list?page=2) or filter parameters (such as/products?color=blueThe page, usually should direct the standard URL to the homepage or the first page, unless these subpages have unique, worthy content to be indexed separately.
  • Regular review：Use Google Search Console or other SEO tools to regularly check the index coverage and normalization reports of your website to ensure that search engines correctly identify your canonical URL.

Summary

As a website operator, maintaining the SEO health of the website is one of our core responsibilities.The 'Standard Link' feature of Anqi CMS is an indispensable tool in our daily content management.It can effectively solve the SEO problems caused by duplicate content, unify the ranking signals of the page, and ensure that the TDK information we carefully set can be accurately understood and utilized by search engines.By reasonably configuring and using this feature, we can significantly improve the visibility of website content, provide users with a clearer search experience, and ultimately drive the traffic and business growth of the website.

Common Questions (FAQ)

Q1: How do I confirm that my Canonical URL is correctly recognized by search engines?

A1: You can use Google Search Console (GSC) to check.In GSC, navigate to 'Index' -> 'Page', then select the URL of the specific page to check.rel="canonical"The tag specifies the standard version.

Q2: Can I point the Canonical URL to a page on an external website?

Q3: What happens if I have a lot of duplicate content but haven't set a Canonical URL?

A3: If you have a lot of duplicate content but have not set a Canonical URL, search engines will try to automatically determine which page is the “**” version for indexing and ranking.This process may be inaccurate, causing search engines to choose the wrong page or spread your ranking signals across all duplicate pages, thereby weakening the overall SEO performance of your website.In severe cases, search engines may consider the quality of your website content to be low, which can affect the overall visibility of your website in search results.