xbiz world
xbiz premiere
educational

How Canonical Links Impact Traffic Flow

When it comes to canonical linking, what you don’t know can hurt your site’s ranking in the search engines. With this in mind, we’ll turn right to the source and rely on advice from the search leader as to how and why attention should be paid to canonical links.

According to Google, a canonical page is the preferred version of a set of pages with highly similar content. Identifying this page is vital for properly crediting the original or main instance of a piece of content. It raises that page in the search rankings against other similar pages, while preserving as much “link juice” as possible. Original content is good, duplicate content is bad.

Studying your server logs or tools such as Google Analytics can help identify pages where similar content is being accessed — even unintentionally.

For example, category prefixes within many Word-Press installations, whether or not these prefixes are actually used or displayed, can provide a hidden source of duplicate content; i.e. a page such as www.domain.com/photos is likely also reachable via a URL such as www.domain.com/category/photos, within a WordPress site.

Another example within the adult arena where specifying a canonical link may be of value is free hosted or affiliate galleries. Consider that a base gallery without reciprocal links would be the preferred page for a search engine to list but there could also be many copies of this galleries — perhaps hundreds or even many thousands of “different” pages, featuring the same content but differing in its reciprocal links and affiliate referral codes. By specifying the canonical link, the cleanest and most profitable gallery should be listed and the other instances of the gallery ignored in the search results.

The easiest way to start using canonical links is by adding a line of code to your page.

?Users can specify a canonical page to search engines by adding a <link> element with the attribute rel=?canonical? to the <head> section of the non-canonical version of the page,? states the Google website. ?Adding this link and attribute lets site owners identify sets of identical content and suggest to Google: ?Of all these pages with identical content, this page is the most useful. Please prioritize it in search results.??

For example, <link rel=?canonical? href=?https://domain.com/galleries/1/index.php?>.

Google recommends using absolute links or specifying a base link so that any relative links will be relative to that base URL. The company also strongly advises webmasters to employ canonical links in cases of minor page differences; and that only one destination URL is used for similar canonical links.

Studying your server logs or tools such as Google Analytics can help identify pages where similar content is being accessed — even unintentionally. By adding canonical links to these pages, you’ll give your main pages a quick boost in the search rankings, delivering more top-quality traffic to your website. Give it a try and see for yourself!

Related:  

Copyright © 2026 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More Articles

opinion

How Adult Businesses Can Navigate Global Compliance Demands

The internet has made the world feel small. Case in point: Adult websites based in the U.S. are now getting letters from regulators demanding compliance with foreign laws, even if they don’t operate in those countries. Meanwhile, some U.S. website operators dealing with the patchwork of state-level age verification laws have considered incorporating offshore in the hopes of avoiding these new obligations — but even operators with no physical presence in the U.S. have been sued or threatened with claims for not following state AV laws.

Larry Walters ·
opinion

Top Tips for Bulletproof Creator Management Contracts

The creator management business is booming. Every week, it seems, a new agency emerges, promising to turn creators into stars, automate their fan interactions or triple their revenue through “secret” social strategies. The reality? Many of these agencies are operating with contracts that wouldn’t survive a single serious dispute — if they even have contracts at all.

Corey D. Silverstein ·
opinion

Building Sustainable Revenue Without Opt-Out Cross-Sales

Over the past year, we’ve seen growing pushback from acquirers on merchants using opt-out cross-sales — also known as negative option offers. This has been especially noticeable in the U.S. In fact, one of our acquirers now declines new merchants during onboarding if an opt-out flow is detected. Existing merchants submitting new URLs with opt-out cross-sales are being asked to remove them.

Cathy Beardsley ·
trends

How to Handle Payment Disputes Without Sacrificing Trust

You can run the best-managed and most compliant website out there, but that still doesn’t completely shield you from the risks tied to payment disputes. Buyer’s remorse, an unclear billing description or even a simple misunderstanding can lead a customer to dispute a transaction. Accumulate enough disputes, and both your reputation and revenue could be at risk.

Jonathan Corona ·
trends

WIA Profile: Taylor Moore

With a 70-person team and a growing slate of tools for content creators, the Teasy Agency has developed a reputation for putting talent first. That commitment owes a lot to co-founder Taylor Moore’s own experiences as a cam model.

Jackie Backman ·
profile

WIA Profile: Cathy Turns Creator Platform Experience Into a Model-First Playbook

As both a model and industry executive, Cathy lives in two worlds at once. “Since I do both things, I can act as the liaison between the model community and the rest of the SextPanther team,” she tells XBIZ.

Jackie Backman ·
opinion

From Compliance to Confidence: The Future of Safety in Adult Platforms

In numerous countries and U.S. states, laws now require platforms to prevent minors from accessing age-inappropriate material. But the need for safeguarding doesn’t end with age verification. Today’s online landscape also places adult companies at uniquely high risk for inadvertently facilitating exploitation, abuse or reputational harm, or of being accused of doing so.

Andy Lulham ·
opinion

What Adult Businesses Need to Know About Florida's Age Verification Law

The rise and proliferation of age verification laws has changed the landscape for the online adult industry. A recent and compelling example is the state of Florida, where Attorney General James Uthmeier has filed multiple complaints against major platforms as well as affiliates accused of violating the state’s AV law.

Corey D. Silverstein ·
opinion

Maintaining Brand Trust in the Face of Negative Press

Over the last year, several of our merchants have found themselves caught up in litigation over compliance with state age verification laws. Recently, Segpay itself was pulled into the spotlight, facing scrutiny over Florida’s AV statute, HB 3. These stories inevitably get picked up by both industry and mainstream news outlets.

Cathy Beardsley ·
opinion

How to Switch Payment Processors Without Disrupting Business

For many merchants, the idea of switching payment processors can feel pretty overwhelming. That’s understandable. After all, downtime can stall sales, recurring subscriptions can suddenly fail, or compliance gaps can put accounts at risk. Operating in a high-risk sector like the adult industry can further amplify the stress of transition.

Jonathan Corona ·
Show More