When and how to use rel="canonical" for dynamic URL's

Question

We are creating dynamic URLs with a combination of service names and city names. Below are the sample pages.

Please let us know in which page do we needs to add rel="canonical" and which link to add in canonical tag.

If city name is added in url the application shows all avalibale food service in given city & hence there are chances of getting duplicate contents are more.

If city name is not there in url it means it will list all food services across all cities.

• Page 1. abc.com/food
• Page 2. abc.com/food/pune
• Page 3. abc.com/food/mumbai

Do I needs to add

<link rel="canonical" href="abc.com/food"/> in Page 2 & Page 3

Or

• <link rel="canonical" href="abc.com/food"/> in Page 1,
• <link rel="canonical" href="abc.com/food/pune"/> in Page 2,
• <link rel="canonical" href="abc.com/food/mumbai"/> in Page 3

Answer 1

Instead of simply listing "all food services across all cities" in the absence of a city name, I would personally add additional content to the general food page that you cannot find on pages that are city-specific.

Then I would add a canonical link to each page.

<link href="abc.com/food" rel="canonical" />
<link href="abc.com/food/pune" rel="canonical" />
<link href="abc.com/food/mumbai" rel="canonical" />

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Here's an example from YellowPages.com:

• https://www.yellowpages.com/houston-tx
• https://www.yellowpages.com/houston-tx/restaurants

<link href="https://www.yellowpages.com/houston-tx" rel="canonical" />
<link href="https://www.yellowpages.com/houston-tx/restaurants" rel="canonical" />