Can a canonical URL be relative?

Technically yes, and you should never do it. A relative canonical is resolved against the page it's on, so one templating mistake — a canonical of `/` on every page — points your entire site at the homepage and de-indexes everything else. Always use the absolute URL.

What's the difference between a canonical and a 301 redirect?

A redirect sends the visitor somewhere else; a canonical serves the page and tells search engines which URL to credit. Use a redirect when the old URL should no longer be reachable, and a canonical when the page must stay accessible — a printable version, a page reachable through several category paths, or a URL with tracking parameters attached.

When would I use the HTTP Link header instead?

For anything that isn't HTML and so has no to put a tag in — PDFs, images, feeds. A PDF that ranks for your brand term with no canonical pointing at the page it belongs to is a real and common problem, and the header is the only way to fix it.

Canonical Tag Generator

Build the canonical tag for a page, with the URL cleaned first. Tracking parameters are the thing that quietly breaks canonicals: a canonical containing `?utm_source=twitter` tells Google that the campaign URL is the real page, splitting one page's authority across every campaign that ever linked to it. This strips utm_*, gclid, fbclid and the rest, normalises the protocol and trailing slash, and gives you the tag as HTML or as an HTTP header.

Page URL

Remove tracking parameters

utm_*, gclid, fbclid and friends. These never belong in a canonical.

Remove every query parameter

Force https

Remove www.

Trailing slash

Output

Result

Paste the page's URL to build its canonical tag.

Nothing is uploaded — this tool runs inside your browser, so your files never leave your device.

Help us improve

Why use this tool

Strips utm_*, gclid, fbclid, msclkid and the other tracking parameters
Normalises protocol, www, trailing slash and removes the #fragment
Outputs an HTML link tag, an HTTP Link header, or both
Refuses relative URLs — the mistake that points a whole site at its homepage

How it works

1Paste the page's URL, including any query string it arrived with.
2Choose how you want it normalised.
3Copy the tag into <head>, or the header into your server config.

Canonical Tag Generator — frequently asked questions

Every indexable page should have one pointing at itself. A self-referencing canonical sounds redundant and isn't: it's what stops parameter variants, session IDs and tracking URLs of the same page competing with each other in the index. It also prevents a scraper's copy of your page from outranking it.

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