Google has updated the guide on Cross Domain Canonicals for syndicated content; however, the guide for syndicated news remains the same.
Canonicals between domains
A canonical link element is a way of telling search engines that a web page should not be considered the original source of the content, that it should be considered a duplicate page and also point with a link to the page that Google should consider it as the original (the canonical page).
A cross-domain canonical is when the duplicate page appears on a completely different website (domain).
Google updated its crawling and indexing instructions on Tuesday, May 2, 2022 to remove instructions about cross-domain canonicals.
But this change was confusing because it seemed to indicate a change in the way canonicals are used between domains, but there was no explicit statement about this to confirm that there was a change.
We reached out to someone at Google on Tuesday to ask if cross-domain canonicals are no longer supported.
We were told that they would contact us again on Wednesday to clarify but in the meantime the documentation in question had been updated.
That said, Google STILL hosts conflicting older guides…Clear as mud?
Google updates crawling and indexing instructions
There are two changes to the guidance on how to use cross-domain canonicals for non-news syndicated content.
Change no. 1: Guide removed
The first change was his Crawling and indexing guide to avoid duplicate content.
Google has updated the crawling and indexing guide to remove a recommendation to use a cross-domain canonical.
Here’s what was removed:
“Reasons for specifying a canonical URL
…To manage syndicated content.
If you distribute your content for publishing on other domains, you may want a specific URL to appear in search results.”
Change no. 2: added guidance
The second change was the addition of new guides to Google’s canonical troubleshooting page.
The new guidance specifically recommends against using a cross-domain canonical for syndicated content.
This is the new guide:
“Syndicated content
The canonical link element is not recommended for those who want to avoid duplication by syndication partners, because the pages are often very different.
The most effective solution is to block partners from indexing your content.
For more information, see Avoid duplicating articles in Google News, which also provides advice on how to block syndicated content from Google Search.”
Cross-domain canonicals for syndicated news content
The above changes do not affect how the Google News crawling and indexing system handles syndicated content.
Google still recommends that news publishers distributing their news content continue to use cross-domain canonicals as prescribed in their existing guidelines, which have not changed.
The guidance for news editorstells how to avoid duplicate articles in Google News.
There are two ways to manage syndicated content that is news:
1. Syndicated news content within the site or network itself
“There are a few ways news sites can help Google News find the original version of a news article.
Use the rel=”canonical” tag.
If you publish the same article on multiple pages on your site or within your site network, you can use the rel=”canonical” tag.
2. News content syndicated to third-party sites
Publishers distributing their news content to third parties should have their syndication partners use the “noindex” meta robots tag directive to prevent Googlebot-News from crawling and indexing syndicated content published on third-party websites.
The original source of news content should be the only content Googlebot-News crawls and indexes.
This is the noindex meta robots directive to use:
The noindex meta tag above should only be used on third-party news sites where the content is republished. Do not use it on the news website where the original content is published.
This is the official guide:
“Disallow Googlebot-News
If you distribute your articles to other news sites, make sure that only the original version of your articles appears in Google News.
To do this, your syndication partners should use a robots meta tag to prevent Google News from indexing their versions of your original article.”
Additional guidance for using cross-domain canonicals
There is still more information.
Google guidance published in December 2009 which advises on the use of cross-domain canonicals for syndicated content/product descriptions.
The guide in the form of questions and answers:
“I am offering my content/product descriptions for syndication. Do my editors have to use rel=”canonical”?
We leave that up to you and your editors. If the content is similar enough, it might make sense to use rel=”canonical”, if both parties agree.”
Presumably the previous guide is superseded by the new orientation for non-informational content on their canonical troubleshooting webpage.
“The canonical link element is not recommended for those who want to avoid duplication by syndication partners, because the pages are often very different. The most effective solution is to block partners from indexing your content.”
Read Google’s new guidance on canonicalizing syndicated content
Fix canonicalization issues: syndicated content
Avoid duplicate articles in Google News
Featured image by Shutterstock/Asier Romero
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