Google: rel=”canonical” Now Supported In HTTP Headers

Google announced they are now supporting the rel=”canonical” attribute within HTTP headers. This enables webmasters to set up a canonical for linking to or from PDF files or other non-HTML based files. One of the examples given by Google is that a “webmaster can signal to Google that the canonical URL for the PDF download […]

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Google announced they are now supporting the rel=”canonical” attribute within HTTP headers.

This enables webmasters to set up a canonical for linking to or from PDF files or other non-HTML based files.

One of the examples given by Google is that a “webmaster can signal to Google that the canonical URL for the PDF download is the HTML document by using a rel=”canonical” HTTP header when the PDF file is requested.”

This also comes in handy when you use a CDN (content delivery network) and the content is being served from many different URLs. You can now use the rel=”canonical” within the HTTP header to set up those redirects for that type of content.

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About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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