Last updated: August 3, 2021
If you have similar content on multiple pages of your website, search engines may penalize the SEO ranking of those pages. Setting a canonical URL for duplicate pages tells search engines which piece of content is the preferred version and avoids this penalty.
Manage your canonical URL settings
By default, when you create a new page or blog post, its URL is set as canonical for that content. This is the recommended setting, as it helps search engines recognize that your content is authoritative. In contrast, blog listing pages do not have canonical URLs set by default - this helps search engines find subsequent pages for the same blog listing page.
You can change either of these default settings in your website settings:
- In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the main navigation bar.
- In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Website > Pages.
- Click the SEO & Crawlers tab.
- For pages and blog posts, select a canonical URL setting. If you select Don't add canonical URLs to any pages or blog posts, you will need to manually set canonical URLs to avoid being penalized for duplicate content.
- For blog listing pages, select a canonical URL setting. If you select Set each blog listing page's canonical URL to the first page in its series, search engines may be unable to find subsequent pages for your blog listing page.
- In the bottom left, click Save.
Add or edit a canonical URL for an individual blog post, landing page, or website page
You can manually add or edit a canonical URL for a blog post or page. Canonical URLs set this way will take priority over your canonical URL settings.
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Navigate to your content:
- Website Pages: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Website > Website Pages.
- Landing Pages: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Landing Pages.
- Blog: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Website > Blog.
- Hover over an existing page or post and click Edit.
- Navigate to the Settings tab. Then click Advanced Options.
- In the Canonical URL section, enter a canonical URL for the page or post's content. This is the URL search engines will prioritize when displaying search results relevant to this content.
- In the top right, click Publish or Update.
