Canonical tag vs redirect: when to use each one
Understand when a canonical tag is enough and when a redirect is the stronger and cleaner SEO choice.
A canonical suggests, a redirect enforces
A canonical tag tells search engines which URL should be treated as preferred when similar versions exist. A redirect does more: it sends users and crawlers from one URL to another and removes ambiguity at the access level.
That difference matters. If an old URL should still be reachable but consolidated for indexing, canonical can help. If the old URL should disappear from normal use, redirect is usually the cleaner option.
Pick based on the user path, not only the crawler signal
The right decision depends on whether both URLs should remain accessible. If users still need multiple variants, canonical may make sense. If there is only one version that should be visited, redirects are often stronger and simpler.
The best SEO setups align canonicals, redirects, internal links and sitemap entries so the preferred version is consistent everywhere.