# Canonical Link

A `canonical link` is an HTML element that helps prevent duplicate content in search engine optimization by specifying the "preferred" version of a page. The canonical tag is added to the HTML head of a page and has a link leading to the version of the web page that is the most complete or authoritative. Irrespective of the number of URLs pointing to similar content, the canonical link denotes which is the key version. This is crucial in guiding search engine bots to index and rank the right pages.