# The Canonical Issue does my head in **URL:** \ **Category:** RapidWeaver Classic\ **Created:** [March 26, 2024, 4:44pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/the-canonical-issue-does-my-head-in/42912 "2024-03-26T16:44:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jbob](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/jbob/32/31581_2.png) [@jbob](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/jbob)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 4:44pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/the-canonical-issue-does-my-head-in/42912/1 "2024-03-26T16:44:24Z")
I find my brain spins at some of the issues regarding seo - I just cant seem to make them make sense Could elements pages have a flag to set the canonical flag for example ? ---
**Author:** ![Flash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f475e1/32.png) [@Flash](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Flash)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 7:30pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/the-canonical-issue-does-my-head-in/42912/2 "2024-03-26T19:30:45Z")
It will not be necessary as it will be the only version of the page on the website. The advantage of a flat file, static website. The web crawlers can see the original date of the file. They can also track any changes to the file from the server log files. So you’re good to go right away! Canonical applies to scenarios like blogs, where multiple versions of the same page exist. Adding the Canonical tag informs the crawlers that this page is the original, while the others are part of the website and not intended as duplicates to spam the search engines. ---
**Author:** ![differentdan](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/differentdan/32/33530_2.png) [@differentdan](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/differentdan)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 7:34pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/the-canonical-issue-does-my-head-in/42912/3 "2024-03-26T19:34:14Z")
There’s a good YouTube video on Google’s Documentation page about it, clears up some misconceptions if you are wanting to learn more. > **[How to Specify a Canonical with rel="canonical" and Other Methods | Google...](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls)** > > When a site has duplicate content, Google chooses the canonical URL. Learn more about canonical URLs and how to consolidate duplicate URLs. ---
**Author:** ![jbob](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/jbob/32/31581_2.png) [@jbob](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/jbob)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 8:46pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/the-canonical-issue-does-my-head-in/42912/4 "2024-03-26T20:46:10Z")
Points duel noted - thank you guys !! I guess my point was - RW is specifically designed for people like me who will typically struggle with issues like Canonical … so whatever can be done to eleviate the issue - all the better. Thanks Dan I have read that doc. I am (only) marginally wiser : ) I think Flash is right - blogs can cause problems Canonical In my case … - I have 25 flagged (canonical issue) pages - they are all downloadable PDFs on [www.dibleymarine.com](http://www.dibleymarine.com) - and this one … [Find Us on Google Maps, Dibley Marine Yacht Design](https://www.dibleymarine.com/contactus/rapidmaps/index.html) Any clues on either would be very much appreciated Jol PS. (I also have lots of ‘Crawled / Discovered - Currently not indexed’ pages - if anybody can help at all I’d really appreciate it). SEO is hard - I think when you have a complex site - perhaps when you have an old site that has been reworked several times Ta - Jol ---
**Author:** ![differentdan](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/differentdan/32/33530_2.png) [@differentdan](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/differentdan)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 11:08pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/the-canonical-issue-does-my-head-in/42912/5 "2024-03-26T23:08:07Z")
> [@jbob](#): > > Canonical In my case … > > - I have 25 flagged (canonical issue) pages - they are all downloadable PDFs on [www.dibleymarine.com](http://www.dibleymarine.com) > - and this one … [Find Us on Google Maps, Dibley Marine Yacht Design](https://www.dibleymarine.com/contactus/rapidmaps/index.html) > > Any clues on either would be very much appreciated Can you post a screenshot or two from your Google Search Console showing the things Google is complaining about regarding those 25 PDF pages? A general answer though, for the PDF files, Google states that [`rel="canonical" link`](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls#rel-canonical-link-method) doesn’t work. You’d use [`rel="canonical"` HTTP header](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls#rel-canonical-header-method) instead. There’s a nice article that explains how to do that [here](https://moz.com/blog/how-to-advanced-relcanonical-http-headers) (scroll down to the section titled **HTTP Headers Using .htaccess (non-Text/HTML Types):** and read from there onwards. Not sure if you’d be able to do that though, it depends on your web hosting provider and your hosting/server environment. If you have any free time on Fridays, feel free to join our [Office Hours](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/c/lounge/office-hours/51), would be cool to go through the above and see if it can be implemented on your hosting account. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jbob](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/jbob/32/31581_2.png) [@jbob](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/jbob)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2024, 9:51am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/the-canonical-issue-does-my-head-in/42912/6 "2024-03-27T09:51:46Z")
My Canonical Issues are … ‘Duplicate without user-selected canonical’ ---
**Author:** ![differentdan](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/differentdan/32/33530_2.png) [@differentdan](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/differentdan)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2024, 2:42pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/the-canonical-issue-does-my-head-in/42912/7 "2024-03-27T14:42:27Z")
Ok, so the links posted in my prior comment goes over how to resolve that for PDF files. ---
**Author:** ![jbob](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/jbob/32/31581_2.png) [@jbob](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/jbob)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2024, 5:15pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/the-canonical-issue-does-my-head-in/42912/8 "2024-03-27T17:15:05Z")
Thank you ! - you guys really are excellent !!