Has your digital agency ever found that Google is displaying a URL that is different in the search results than the URL listed in the canonical tag? This is not an uncommon occurrence. At Globital South Africa, we work with agencies who know they have outsourced to the best SEO reseller company. We are here to explain why Google displays the wrong URL, how it can affect your digital agency and discuss how the problem can be fixed.
What Is A Canonical URL Tag?
When looking at Google’s support resources, “A canonical URL is the URL of the best representative page from a group of duplicate pages, according to Google.” This means that when a web page has two URLs for the same web page, Google will choose one URL as canonical. Canonical URLs help ensure that webmasters can prevent issues with duplicate content in their SEO processes by specifying the preferred, “canonical” version on the page.
Why Does Google Show The Incorrect URL?
Often, despite your digital agency’s best efforts to implement the correct canonical URL and indicate the correct page to be displayed, Google simply won’t display the same URL in its search results. There are several reasons this could happen, most notably:
- Duplicate content
Google may see content across multiple domains for different countries as duplicate, leading it to index only one version of the search results - Page titles
When a website has multiple country code top-level domains, domain extensions in their page titles could confuse Google and lead to canonising the wrong URL
How Does This Affect Digital Agencies?
It can seem detrimental to your clients’ SEO efforts when seeing the wrong URL displayed by Google in the search results. According to Google’s John Mueller, there is no reason for digital agencies to be alarmed. Though seeing the incorrect URL is not what we would prefer, it poses no disadvantage to your clients’ search rankings. In fact, Google Search Console reports typically remain the same whether the preferred URL was selected or not.
How Can Digital Agencies Fix The Problem?
Unfortunately, there’s no easy fix for incorrect canonical URL selection. While it would be ideal if the solution were as simple as changing page titles or using additional tags, this isn’t the case. The only way to make changes to the way Google indexes or canonicalised pages is to ensure that the content is significantly different.
Working With A White Label Partner Can Help Your Digital Agency And Your Clients With Google, Marketing And Other Services
Interested in outsourced digital marketing for your business and clients? Globital South Africa offers digital agencies looking to offer their clients outstanding service with our white label offering. We offer white label Google AdWords, web design, copywriting and other digital services for digital agencies to take advantage of on their clients’ behalf. We can help you out with your URL tags along with a wide range of other web services. To find out more, email us at support@globitalmarketing.com.
