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Pagination has immense advantages, but is often neglected by marketers and SEO developers when optimizing a site. If you’re a publisher of a large amount of content or operate a specific type of site, like an e-commerce store, then SEO pagination should be a crucial aspect of your website design. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of pagination SEO and the best practices for optimizing your site for search engines.
Introduction to Pagination SEO
Pagination is a design technique that involves dividing content into multiple pages, making it easier for users to navigate through long articles or product listings. In addition to enhancing user experience, pagination that is properly optimized through SEO can significantly improve your website’s search engine visibility, page rankings, and organic traffic.
Pagination vs. Load More vs. Infinite Scroll: Which is Better for SEO?
When it comes to formatting long pages of content, you have three options – pagination, load more, and infinite scroll. While pagination divides content into multiple pages, infinite scroll allows continuous scrolling down a page or list of items without the need to manually click on a button. Load more, on the other hand, involves clicking a button to bring up additional content. The best option for you will depend on the user experience you’re trying to achieve and the purpose of your website.
Is Pagination Good or Bad for SEO?
There is a common misconception that pagination is harmful to SEO, with arguments about thin and duplicate content being the main reasons. However, these issues can be easily addressed by using canonical tags, which we’ll discuss later in the article. Pagination has numerous benefits, including a more bot-friendly layout and additional opportunities for indexing and SEO optimization.
How Google Handles Pagination Nowadays
Google has changed the way it handles pagination over time. Previously, Google managed pagination as one long piece of content, but now it treats paginated content as single pages. In 2011, Google used rel=prev/next markup as a ranking factor, but this is no longer the case. As John Mueller, a Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, said in a tweet, “rel-next/prev isn’t vital to pagination SEO.”
8 Steps for Best SEO Pagination Results
To achieve the best results from your SEO pagination efforts, follow these 8 steps:
- Use Unique Titles for Each Paginated Page
- Use Relevant Meta Descriptions for Each
- Paginated Page
- Use Canonical Tags to Prevent Duplicate Content
- Use Pagination Markup (rel=”next” and\rel=”prev”)
- Use Breadcrumb Navigation
- Use Unique Content on Each Paginated PageOptimize Pagination for Mobile
- Monitor Pagination Performance in Google Search Console
Conclusion
Pagination SEO can prove essential to a great customer experience and search engine optimization. By following best practices and giving clear guidance to Google, you can achieve an extra boost to your ranking and drive more organic traffic to your site. Make sure that SEO pagination is on your technical SEO site audit checklist and implement it effectively for optimal results.