Definition
SEO pagination concerns the management of content spread across multiple pages (product listings, blog archives, search results). Historically, rel=prev/next tags were used to indicate the relationship between pages, but Google announced in 2019 that it no longer uses them. Current best practices include self-canonicalization of each paginated page, clear internal linking with links to the first/last page, and using infinite scroll with support for classic pagination for crawling.
Key Points
- Google no longer uses rel=prev/next since 2019
- Each paginated page should have its own canonical
- Ensure clear internal linking between paginated pages
Practical Examples
E-commerce listing
A catalog of 1,000 products is divided into 50 pages of 20 products. Each page has its own canonical and a breadcrumb navigation 1-2-3...50.
Blog archives
A blog with 500 articles uses classic pagination with prev/next links and a clear URL structure /blog/page/2/ to facilitate crawling.
Frequently Asked Questions
Google no longer uses them, but Bing and other engines still do. It is good practice to keep them for compatibility and accessibility.
It depends on context. For editorial content, a single page is often preferred. For product listings, pagination is necessary with 20-50 items per page.
Go Further with LemmiLink
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Last updated: 2026-02-07