Hi Geoff.

First, you do not need to add canonical to each page, only to duplicated pages, to specify the main URL. Your example about the homepage is perfect, so yuo don't need the rel canonical in the / but you need in the /index.php?option=com_content&view=featured&Itemid=101.

Now, you can use Tag Meta to add canonical to your pages, but to think to use it with a distinct rule for each page is completely wrong. You can create rules where each rule can be a regular expression and can match many URLs. And you can use macros to build meta (and canonical) dynamically. Moreover, you can apply many rules to the same URL (you have rule ordering and "last rule" property to do this. And you have the Enterprise version, so you could try the {routeurl} macro. This returns the routed URL using all current variables, so it should usually return the "canonical".

I know there is a lot of tutorials / videos out there, my fault. But if you need some help on this I can give you, just advise.

Kind regards,
Luigi

Hi Geoff,
about the first question, I have a video tutorial (never published) that shows how to use. I could try to finish video editing and publish.

For the second question, I am always available to help you. If you have a complex project you can hire me, but usually this is not required... my users learn my lessons very fast!!!

Finally, for the third question, your question looks strange. The canonical URL MUST BE the main link in a group of URL aliases. I you have, as example, two URLs that point to the SAME page:

www.yoursite.com/news

www.yoursite.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=2

If the "main" URL is the first one, you can add a canonical to the second one (or to both):

I hope this is clear, more info here:

support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139394
Kind regards,
Luigi