Operational meaning
A canonical is a hint about which URL should represent a group of duplicate or near-duplicate pages. It helps consolidate signals, but it is not a redirect and it does not override every conflicting signal.
Common misunderstanding
A canonical tag does not remove a public page or force a search engine to index the selected URL.
References
- How to specify a canonical URL with rel=canonical and other methods — Google Search Central (accessed July 18, 2026)