Content and entities
Canonical URL
A canonical URL tells search engines which version of a page is the one to index when the same content is reachable at several addresses. It consolidates signals onto a single address instead of splitting them.
In more detail
It is essential on multilingual sites where an untranslated page still renders under every language prefix. Pointing those copies at the source-language URL keeps one indexable version.
Guides that cover this
Related terms
hreflang
hreflang is markup that tells search engines which language and region each version of a page serves. A valid cluster names every version including itself, so readers are sent to the right one.
Sitemap
A sitemap is an XML file listing the URLs a site wants crawled, with optional hints about change frequency and language alternates. It is how a crawler discovers pages that navigation alone might not surface.
Crawl budget
Crawl budget is how much crawling a site receives in a given period. Keeping sitemaps accurate and avoiding duplicate URLs helps crawlers spend that budget on pages you want retrieved.
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