If you’re running a website with loads of content or an e-commerce store, you might want to consider adding SEO pagination to your technical SEO site audit checklist. Pagination has immense benefits, including an SEO boost. However, it might not be the first thing marketers and SEO developers consider when optimizing a site.

In this article, we’ll explore pagination SEO and why it’s essential to an excellent customer experience. We will also discuss whether pagination is good or bad for SEO and which type of page formatting (pagination, load more, or infinite scroll) is better for SEO.

What is Pagination SEO?

Pagination is an SEO/design technique that involves breaking up content on multiple pages, allowing users to move through long articles or bulk product listings quickly. It’s an essential aspect of website design that can make all the difference in search engine visibility and getting relevant content in front of a keen audience.

When properly optimized through SEO, pagination can help page rankings and bring more organic traffic to your website. Typically, you see pagination on blogs, e-commerce stores, social media, and search engines.

Pagination vs. Load More vs. Infinite Scroll: Which is Better for SEO?

Different types of page options for mobile phones.

You’ve got three choices for formatting long pages of content: basic pagination, load more, and infinite scroll. Infinite scrolling allows continuous scrolling down a webpage or list of items without needing to manually click ‘load more’ or navigate to another page. Load more usually appears on e-commerce sites or news sites. Below are some tips on how to use pagination SEO:

Infinite scroll

Infinite scroll is a navigational technique used on websites and applications. It allows continuous scrolling down a webpage or list of items without needing to manually click ‘load more’ or navigate to another page.

Rather than putting content on different pages, as you would with pagination, you put all the content on one page and allow users to continuously scroll until they’ve finished reading the content.

You can see infinite scrolling on social media, news, and entertainment sites. In addition, note that Google has now implemented infinite scroll on mobile and desktop.

Load more

You’ve all likely seen examples of ‘load more.’ These usually appear on e-commerce sites or news sites. When you want to bring up additional content, you click on the ‘View More’ or ‘See More’ buttons.

However, whichever option you choose, remember it’s all about the user experience and the website’s purpose. For instance, research from the Baynard Institute found that people look at more items when there’s a ‘load more’ button. Considering this, load more may be better for e-commerce sites.

Is Pagination Good or Bad for SEO?

There are some arguments online about whether pagination harms SEO. The two potential problems around SEO and pagination are thin and duplicate content. However, neither of these needs to be an issue. You can avoid duplicate content with canonical tags, and thin content could be a concern only if you put limited content on a page.

There are notable benefits of pagination. Generally, pagination is more bot friendly, and its layout makes it easy for search engines to index. Another benefit of pagination is having multiple pages online, meaning more indexing and SEO optimization opportunities.

How Google Used to Handle Pagination vs. How They Handle it Now

Formerly, Google would manage pagination as one long piece of content. Now, for indexing, Google treats paginated content as single pages. There have been other changes in the way Google manages pagination, too. In 2011, Google used rel=prev/next markup as a ranking factor, and to show the relationship with paginated pages. Not anymore.

Several years ago, John Muller from Google made this statement 

A tweet from John Mueller about indexing.

Give Google Clear Guidance by tips below for Best SEO Pagination Results

Here are eight tips to guide you, along with some pagination examples:

  1. Make sure your anchor links are crawlable.
  2. Avoid using a view all page if you decide to paginate.
  3. Use self-referencing canonical tags.
  4. Use URLs properly.
  5. Use pagination pages the same way you use internal linking.
  6. Don’t waste crawl budget by putting paginated pages on XML sitemaps.
  7. Use your crawl budget in a way that best serves you.
  8. Optimize content on paginated pages.

Bonus: Track Results on Paginated Pages

It’s important to track your results using analytics tools like Ubersuggest, Screaming Frog, and Google Analytics/Search Console.

FAQs

  • How Do I Check Pagination SEO?
    You can monitor your pagination SEO with tools like Ubersuggest, Screaming Frog, and Google Analytics/Search Console.
  • Why is Pagination Good for SEO?
    Paginating content helps make webpages easier to load, reducing bounce rates and increasing user engagement with content on your website. 
    Additionally, by breaking up content into multiple pages, you can target additional specific keywords and phrases, helping optimize each page for those terms. This gives your site more crawling, indexing, and Page Rank opportunities and can ultimately lead to better search engine ranking results.
    In addition to optimizing user experience, pagination allows users to jump directly to relevant information without needing to scroll endlessly through a long text or image page.
  • What is Better for SEO: Pagination or Infinite Scrolling?
    Both approaches have pros. Infinite scroll allows users to stay on the same page longer, resulting in higher engagement metrics, which may boost SEO rankings. However, it can slow page load times, and this can harm SEO.
    Using pagination has several benefits for SEO, including multiple pages for indexing, opportunities for internal linking, and making it more relevant for users looking for specific content. 
    Given its multiple benefits, pagination is best for your online strategy, provided you follow pagination SEO best practices and implement them correctly.
  • How To Set up Pagination for SEO?
    Begin by identifying which pages are best suited for pagination. Are there any long-form pieces of content you can break down into smaller chunks? If so, those would be great candidates for pagination.

    Then, follow the best practices for pagination, which include:
    Making sure your anchor links are crawlable.
    Avoiding using a view all page if you decide to paginate.
    Using self-referencing canonical tags.
    Using URLs properly.
    Using pagination pages like you would internal linking.
    Not wasting crawl budget by putting paginated pages on XML.
    Making sure to use your crawl budget in a way that best serves you.
    Optimizing content on paginated pages.
    It’s also important to track your results using analytics tools.

Conclusion

Pagination is a complex area of technical SEO, but once you understand the basics, implementing effective pagination for your site becomes much more manageable. Following pagination SEO best practices can help search engines find and crawl all of your content. Additionally, implementing these pagination principles helps ensure that you optimize your site for users and search engine crawlers.