Google described selecting one representative or canonical URL from a duplicate cluster for search results.

Cited by documentation

Sources

• What is URL Canonicalization

  Google Search Central Documentation · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-18

  “a canonical URL is the URL of a page that Google chose as the most representative from a set of duplicate pages” — Definition of canonicalization

• Google On Difference Between Clustering & Canonicalization

  Search Engine Roundtable · retrieved 2026-08-18

  “canonicalization is, from those pages, which one is the best one” — Quote from Google Search Off the Record interview

• How Google handles Clustering and Canonicalization

  TSW · retrieved 2026-08-18

  “then selects a canonical version that represents that group in search results” — Article summary

• Google Lists 9 Scenarios That Explain How It Picks Canonical URLs

  Search Engine Journal · retrieved 2026-08-18

  “Google's John Mueller explains the nine scenarios in which one URL is selected as the canonical instead of another.” — lines 120-143