[wp-hackers] Canonical integration into core

[Dan Gayle]

The canonical idea is that every page is associated with only one (1)  
URL, which never was a problem with static pages. Dynamic pages,  
particularly WordPress posts or pages, can have multiple different URL  
schemes that all point to the same content. But the content itself  
doesn't change. Being able to designate as a rule, "THIS is the best/ 
most accurate/preferred URL for any given content" is an idea well  
past due.

This doesn't mean, however, that the OTHER ways of accessing the  
content cease to exist. It simply means that Google will wrap every  
page that has the same canonical URL under that single banner.

I don't see anywhere in the Google information that the canonical URL  
can't be whatever you want it to be. That being said, if someone is  
using old URL structures and would like the benefits associated with  
canonical URLs, there should be a way to choose or over-ride what YOU  
want to be the canonical, aside from what would be the default  
Wordpress Permalink.

Many of my company's websites use categories as their primary  
navigation, and I don't see how this would not benefit them at all,  
because regardless of how you get to it, there is only one (1) page  
and that one page can have one (1) canonical url. In fact, that is  
quite the point, because you CAN get to a single page in many  
different ways in a CMS.


On Feb 17, 2009, at 2:12 AM, Lynne Pope wrote:

> It will also do little or nothing to negatively impact on a new site  
> either.
> However, older sites need to maintain control over what gets  
> presented as a
> canonical URL or they will run into issues with indexing. An  
> automated link
> in the header will not give sites the control they need to direct  
> page rank
> and link juice the way they want.
>
> For example, one site I developed was using categories as a key part  
> of the
> site structure. Posts were accessed by category and were not listed  
> in an
> index or home page. A standard blog would normally have category ->  
> post as
> duplicates to index -> post but, in this case, all posts were  
> accessed only
> through a category listing.
>
> A generic header tag that assumes sites are blogs that present  
> either full
> posts or excerpts on a frontpage is going to be unusable in  
> situations like
> this. As more sites trend towards using WP as a CMS we will see more  
> sites
> deviating from the norm.