Canonical value
A canonical value is the one agreed way of writing a value, which every other spelling of it is mapped onto, such as Navy for NVY and navy blue.
- Preferred value
- Standard value
What it means
When one thing arrives under several names, you choose one name as the canonical value and map every variant onto it. Navy, navy blue and NVY all become Navy. WooCommerce gives its own example: convert L, l and Large “to the single value you want to use, such as Large”.1
The list is yours to set, in the words your shoppers use, written in one style. Agree it with whoever looks after the category pages. Where a channel publishes its own list, prefer its word. eBay UK asks sellers to “use eBay’s suggested values as much as possible rather than creating your own custom values”.2
Fold spellings, and leave real distinctions alone. If an old value carries a meaning shoppers rely on, keep it as an attribute of its own.
Think of it like this
Road signs work this way. Locals may spell a village three ways, but the sign, the map and the satnav use one spelling, so everyone arrives at the same place.
For example
A Material column holds 100% acrylic, acrylic knit and ACRYLIC. All three are mapped to the canonical value Acrylic, and when the next supplier file says Acrylic Yarn, only that new spelling needs a decision.
Why it matters
Every channel reads the same column, so one canonical value keeps your filters, titles and feeds saying the same thing. Google asks for the colour in your data to match your landing page,3 which is far easier when both come from one value.
Not to be confused with
Sources
- WooCommerce documentation. Product CSV Importer and Exporter.
- eBay UK Seller Centre. Item specifics.
- Google Merchant Center Help. Colour [color].
- Google Search Central. What is URL Canonicalization.