Adding a Canonical Tag in WordPress with Yoast

Step-by-Step Guide to Adding Canonical Links Using Yoast SEO:

Login to Your WordPress Dashboard:

• Go to your WordPress admin area by logging in with your username and password.

Install and Activate Yoast SEO Plugin:

• If you haven’t installed Yoast SEO, navigate to Plugins > Add New.
• In the search bar, type “Yoast SEO”.
• Click Install and then Activate the plugin.

Edit the Post/Page You Want to Add a Canonical Link To:

• Navigate to the post or page where you want to set a canonical URL by going to Posts or Pages, then click Edit under the relevant post/page.

Scroll Down to the Yoast SEO Meta Box:

• Below the content editor, you’ll find the Yoast SEO meta box (also called the “Yoast SEO panel”). This box includes various SEO settings.

Go to the ‘Advanced’ Tab:

• In the Yoast SEO meta box, click on the gear icon (⚙️) to access the Advanced settings tab. This is where you can specify a canonical URL.

Enter the Canonical URL:

• In the field labeled “Canonical URL”, enter the full URL you want this page to be recognized as the canonical version. This is typically the URL you want search engines to index if there are duplicate or similar versions of this page. Example: https://yourwebsite.com/your-preferred-url/

Save or Update the Page

• Once you’ve entered the canonical URL, scroll back up and click Update or Publish to save your changes.

• Make sure the canonical URL is correct, as it tells search engines which version of the page to prioritise.
• Yoast SEO automatically adds a canonical URL to your posts and pages (the default is the current page URL), but you can customise it if necessary.
• Only use canonical URLs when dealing with duplicate content, multi-page posts, or when you want search engines to focus on a specific version of a URL or a different page with similar content.

By following these instructions, you can easily apply canonical URLs using the Yoast SEO plugin in WordPress.