GlossarySEO
How should pagination be handled for SEO?
Also called: paginated pages, rel next prev, page 2 SEO, infinite scroll SEO
Definition
Pagination splits a long list, like blog posts or products, across several pages. Google treats each page as a separate URL, so each needs its own URL, crawlable links and a self-referencing canonical.
Pagination, explained
Google's pagination guide covers the rules. Give each page a unique URL, for example with a ?page=n parameter, because Google treats pages in a paginated sequence as separate pages. Link them with normal <a href> links, typically next and previous plus links to other pages, and consider linking every page back to the first page to signal where the collection starts.
Two old habits need unlearning. Google says it no longer uses rel="next" and rel="prev", though other search engines may. And don't canonicalize page 2 onwards to page 1. Google's advice is to give each page its own canonical URL. Pointing them all at page 1 tells Google the later pages are duplicates, so the items listed only on those pages can lose their path to discovery.
Avoid URL fragments like #page=2 for page numbers; Google ignores fragments and may not follow such links. For infinite scroll and "load more" buttons, Google recommends following JavaScript SEO practices and making the content reachable through paginated URLs behind the scenes, plus sitemaps or feeds.
Pagination also affects depth. If item 300 is only reachable on page 15, it's far from the homepage. Topic hubs, filters that produce clean category pages and related links give crawlers shorter paths than paging alone.
Why it matters for founders
Blog archives, directories and product lists all paginate. Getting it wrong can hide most of your content from crawlers behind page 1.
Example
Your directory lists 600 tools, 30 per page. Each page lives at /directories?page=n with a self-canonical and next/previous links. Category hubs give every listing a second, shorter path.
Common mistakes
- Canonicalizing every paginated page to page 1.
- Using
#page=2fragments or JavaScript-only "load more". - Adding
noindex, nofollowto paginated pages, cutting off the items they link to. - Relying on
rel="next"/rel="prev"for Google.
Sources
Checked
Related terms
- Crawl depthCrawl depth, or click depth, is how many clicks it takes to reach a page from the homepage by following links. Pages many clicks deep tend to be crawled less often and treated as less important.
- Canonical tagA canonical tag is a line in a page's HTML,
<link rel="canonical" href="…">, that tells search engines which URL is the main version when several URLs show the same or very similar content. - Lazy loadingLazy loading delays loading images, iframes or content until they're about to scroll into view. It speeds up pages, but content must load without clicks or scrolling or Google may never see it.
- URL parametersURL parameters are the
key=valuepairs after a?in a URL, like?ref=twitteror?sort=price. Each unique combination is a separate URL to search engines, even when the content barely changes.