Canonical URL
Definition
A canonical URL is the one address a site declares as the master copy of a page when the same content is reachable at several URLs, for example with sort or filter parameters. Search engines consolidate ranking signals on the canonical and ignore the duplicates. Every page should carry a canonical tag, usually pointing to itself.
Why it matters for your store
Stores generate duplicate URLs by nature. A category can be sorted by price, filtered by color, and paginated, and each combination is a URL. A product can be reached with a variant parameter, a tracking parameter, or through two categories. Without a canonical, search engines split the page's authority across all those addresses and may index the wrong one.
Duplicates also come from domains. A store reachable at both its test address and its own domain, or at both www and the bare domain, is competing with itself. The canonical should point at the one address you want indexed.
How Kambloo handles it
Every product, category, and page carries a self-referencing canonical generated by the platform. Sort and filter parameters are dropped from it; the page parameter is kept, so paginated category pages remain distinct. Variant parameters do not change the canonical, so a product is one page regardless of the color being viewed.
The canonical always uses the store's primary custom domain. Before go-live, test stores are noindex anyway. Once the custom domain is verified, the test address redirects to it with a 301, and www and the bare domain are normalised so only one form is indexed.
If you syndicate content or need an exception, the canonical can be overridden per page in the SEO settings.
Questions about Canonical URL
Does a color or size selection create a duplicate page?
It can, if the selection changes the URL. On Kambloo, variant parameters do not change the canonical, so all variant views count as one product page.
Should paginated category pages have their own canonical?
Yes. Page 2 of a category is different content from page 1, so it keeps a self-referencing canonical with the page parameter. Only sort and filter parameters are dropped.