Cross-Domain Canonical: Google's New Guidelines

In Google’s recent statement, they gave new guidelines to SEO experts for using cross-domain canonical links. This is because Google noticed that users are still using the cross-domain canonical links where they are not recommended, and it was necessary to impose limitations.

Google is supposed to publish multiple updates on different pages with the guidance. But rather than that, they published the guidelines in a staggered manner. This results in confusion among SEO experts about whether Google is in favor of cross-domain canonical or not.

Here are the two major highlights of the update:

Google clarified their new guidelines for duplicate content on Google News for news publishers. They mentioned that if any syndicate partner uses canonical links to avoid duplication, they can avoid it because the original content is somehow different from others. Moreover, syndicate partners can leverage meta tags to block content indexing.
Additionally, Google shed light on the content that Google News must block. This warning is especially for publishers republishing whole content from wire services, public domain sources, or other publishers.

Google announced on its official page that Content must be blocked from Google News.

The major change was removing the previous guidance, which encouraged publishers to use canonicals. Additionally, Google removed all the suggestions considering cross-domain canonicals. Instead, Google clarified that all the guidances mentioned in the statement publishers should “consider” not “must” do them.

Google’s Statement about cross-domain canonical Link Elements

Goolgle’s recent statement indicates that they support canonical link elements. This gave publishers a green sign to use cross-domain canonical link elements, but yes, they need to do it carefully by following the guidelines.

Some publishers are happy with Google’s update for ranking on cross-domain canonical elements, but some are not. What is your thought on this? Write us in the comment section and share it with your SEO friends to let them know about this new update.