What is URL canonicalization?
For most websites, the www and non-www versions both resolve to the same content but can be browsed independently, especially if using internal links without the full domain name. Similarly it’s often possible to view both yoursite.com/ and yoursite.com/index.html The following urls could contain different content, but in most cases it is the same: www.yoursite.com/ yoursite.com/ www.yoursite.com/index.html yoursite.com/index.html yoursite.com/index.php This gives rise to URL canonicalization, whereby Google has to decide which url is the best represented from the possible options. Usually this would see the page with the most back links (internal and external) displayed in the search results, and so for most webmasters the problems remain hidden. The disadvantage of canonical url problems is that the link love is split between several possible options and therefore does not maximize the full ranking potential of the page.
