Introduction
The Custom Canonical plugin provides Joomla administrators with a simple way to create persistent, URL agnostic canonical tags.
What is a persistent, URL agnostic canonical tag?
I'm glad you asked. There are three essential parts: it is persistent, it is URL agnostic, and it is a canonical tag.
Persistent means that it does not vanish even if the page is not loaded correctly. The canonical tag is married to the item it is assigned to. Everywhere that item is the primary content the canonical tag is served.
URL agnostic means that it does not depend on the URL. Canonical tags value is when they are served on a URL you don't want to be indexed. URL dependent canonical tags just about useless.
A Canonical Tag is an HTML rel="" attribute value that identifies a URL as being canonical to the page it is served on.
Note: In this documentation relative canonical URLs are used for brevity. Using absolute URLs is recommended by both Google and most SEOs.
You can read this blog post to learn more about canonical tags in Joomla.
Installation
Installing the Custom Canonical plugin on your Joomla website is simple.
Warning: Remember to back up your website before you install a new extension... even this one.
Installation Steps
- Download the latest version of the Custom Canonical plugin here and click Download.
- Log into your Joomla website.
- Navigate the extension install page by clicking Extensions > Manage > Install in the top navigation bar.
- Select the Upload Package File tab then click the Or browse for file button.
- In the window that opens find and select the downloaded plugin archive folder then click Open. The plugin will automatically upload and install.
- Navigate to your Joomla site's Plugin page by clicking Extensions > Plugins.
- Find the plugin in the list it is called System - Custom Canonical, and make sure it is enabled. The status icon should be a green check mark.
You have successfully installed and enabled the Custom Canonical plugin for Joomla. Next, you will need to configure it.