Difference, Similarity, Implement 301 Redirect Vs Canonical

Teguh Arief

Sep 30, 2022

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301 Redirect or Canonical. Image: iqinfotech.co.in.

Google doesn’t like duplicate content, then need a solution, implement 301 redirect or Canonical URL. And don't make the wrong choice in implement 301 redirect or Canonical URL by knowing the difference and similarity.

It makes it harder for them to choose:


  1. Which version of a page to index and only index one!

  2. Which version of a page to rank for relevant queries.



Difference 301 Redirect and Canonical




  1. 301 redirect is a permanent command that will redirect website visitors to a new page automatically from the previous old page.

    For example: when opening page X redirects to selected page Y.

    In this case, only page Y will be crawled by Google, page X will be skipped.

  2. Canonical URL is a technical solution for telling search engines which pages to rank when duplicate issues occur on the similar content of multiple pages.

    For example: the similar content of page X and page Y, then selected page Y as the canonical page.

    In this case, page X and page Y will be crawled by Google, but page Y will be prioritized by Google to appear on search engines.



Similarity 301 Redirect and Canonical



The similarity is only one of the two/multiple pages that will appear on search engines: page Y.

Implement 301 Redirect



Place the following line:


RedirectMatch 301 /X.html/ /Y.html/


into .htaccess file.

Implement Canonical



Place within the section of a web page:


<link rel="canonical" href="https://domain.com/Y.html/" />


in page X and page Y.

Article Difference, Similarity, Implement 301 Redirect Vs Canonical is inspired by job test experience...

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