Canonicalize products to category?

Question

There is an ecommerce site, a category and products. Some few products are top, most other products are so-so.

Is it a good idea to canonicalize so-so products to category?

Like this

• Category: https://example.com/category1.html
• Top product: https://example.com/category1/top-product-1.html - remains with self-referencing canonical
• So-so product: https://example.com/category1/soso-product-2.html gets <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/category1.html" />

Answer 1

No, the role of canonicalization is pointing URLs that are mostly similar to a proper canonical one. That's not the case here.

Determine what makes a product "so-so" vs "top" and see if it can be changed. For example, maybe so-so products have thin content, that is something you can change. If the products are just unappealing then that is a problem for the business to solve by making better products.