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Google Updates Canonical Documentation to Recommend Self-Referential Tags

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TLDR

Google formally added guidance to its canonical help document recommending SEOs include self-referential canonical tags on the canonical page itself.

Optimixed Overview

Optimixed's original report on this story.

SERoundtable reports that Google has updated its canonical documentation to explicitly state "Do include a rel='canonical' link on the canonical page itself (also known as a self-referential canonical)." While the recommendation is not new—John Mueller advised this practice in 2011—the addition formalizes it in Google's official help materials. The update consisted of two lines added to clarify that self-referential canonicals should be placed on the canonical page to keep site structure clean.

Topics:SEO News & Algorithm Updates
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