Why do we have canonical links for writing?
That’s an odd thing to wake up thinking. But, hey, that’s what was in my head this morning.
TK, what’s a canonical link?
A canonical link is simply a way of telling search engines and platforms, “This is the original home of this piece.” When you publish the same article in more than one place — say, on your own blog and on Medium — you can set a canonical link to point back to whichever version you want credited as the source. Without it, Google might see two copies and not know which to rank, potentially hurting both. Medium lets you import stories with a canonical link so you can share your work there while keeping your original site recognized as the definitive version.
Here’s the thing. I love it when a podcast is “available anywhere podcasts are found.”
A friend will send me a podcast link he thinks I might like from Apple Podcasts, but then, if I can’t find it on Spotify, I won’t listen to it, because I don’t have an iPhone.
I had another friend who was a guest on a podcast that I could only find on Soundcloud. What a pain in the ass. I had to subscribe to another thing just to listen to one episode.
Some people have podcasts and even books on tape (hahaha, um, I mean, audiobooks) that are only available on Substack. Boo!
“Available anywhere” is great.
Same goes for music. I can listen to music on the radio, on Spotify, on iTunes, on a vinyl record, at a concert. The same song is everywhere.
TV shows available on one platform only. Boo!!!
TV shows you can find anywhere. Yay!!!
But either way, Google isn’t punishing the TV show for being available on multiple platforms.
Podcasts, music, and TV shows don’t have a canonical link.
TK, am I right, or what?
You’re right. Text is the only medium Google reads word-for-word, so identical copies look like duplicates. A song on five platforms is just “the song”; an article on five platforms is five competing pages. Canonical links exist because writing is legible to search engines in a way that audio and video aren’t.
This is bullshit for writers.
If this is going to be the situation, then at least every platform where people read writing should be required to give us an option to put the canonical link.
I’d LOVE for my readers to find my work on my own website, Medium, Substack, X, and LinkedIn. Meet the audience where they’re at. Let them use the platform they like best.
I have a bunch of dumb practices that don’t make sense because of this situation.
For work I’m submitting to a publication, it goes to Medium only. I might re-share it on Substack months and months later with a big preamble.
For work I’m self-publishing, I share on Substack first, because Medium allows Canonical links. Thank you, Medium 🙏
But it’s bullshit. Why should Substack get it first when those assholes don’t allow canonical links?
On X, I share links back to my Substack and Medium essays. But X would prefer the essays are native to X. Duh! Of course they want that.
No platform wants eyeballs leaving that platform.
Every platform algorithm is going to reward content that keeps people on the platform.
There should be a way to drop a written work the way an artist drops a track — one file, everywhere at once.
TK, can writers do this?
Yes, actually. Tools like Narrareach and Pipepost let you write once and cross-publish to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, X, and more — with automatic canonical URL wiring so the first version gets credited as the source.
Well, shit, now I have homework to do!
TK, would you like to have this as a feature so the original source could be you? Then I could share it to Medium, Substack, LinkedIn, and X without being penalized by the Google search gods.
I’d love that. Being the canonical source for your writing — then letting you syndicate to Medium, Substack, LinkedIn, X, wherever — is exactly the kind of thing I’d want to support. One home, everywhere at once. Consider this a feature request received.
Author’s Note: This was written on TK, Medium’s new writing platform. Don’t know what TK is, check it out here.
Thank you for reading.
Health, happiness, kindness, respect
for every being and all things.
— Andrew
Written on TK. Originally published on Medium. Available anywhere writing is found.
DiMeo Unfiltered is my back of the napkin publication featuring half-baked concepts, works in progress, blog-like posts, and personal opinions. This space is raw, authentic, and self-published.
© 2026 Andrew J. DiMeo, Sr. All rights reserved. Permission granted to share with attribution.