# What is Pagination?

> Pagination is splitting a long list of items, such as products or articles, across a sequence of numbered pages linked to one another.

URL: https://yes-seo.com/glossary/pagination

**Pagination** is the practice of dividing a long list — products in a category, posts in a blog archive, results of a search, comments under an article — into a series of pages: page 1, page 2, page 3 and so on, each linking to the others. It keeps pages fast and usable, but it also creates many URLs with similar templates that search engines must crawl and understand.

## How Google treats paginated pages

Google’s guidance on [pagination and incremental page loading](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/pagination-and-incremental-page-loading) sets out the current rules:

- Give each page its **own URL**, usually with a query parameter such as `?page=2`. Don’t use URL fragments (`#page=2`); Google ignores them.

- **Link pages sequentially** with normal `<a href>` links so crawlers can reach every item, ideally also linking back to the first page.

- Give each page a **self-referencing canonical**. Page 2 is not a duplicate of page 1; it lists different items.

- `rel="next"` and `rel="prev"` are **no longer used** by Google as an indexing signal — Google confirmed this in 2019. They’re harmless, and other engines or browsers may still use them, but don’t rely on them.

## Example: page 2 of a category

```

  Trail Running Shoes – Page 2 | Example Outdoor

-

  …24 products…

    [1](https://yes-seo.com/trail-shoes/)
    [2](https://yes-seo.com/trail-shoes/?page=2)
    [3](https://yes-seo.com/trail-shoes/?page=3)
    [Next](https://yes-seo.com/trail-shoes/?page=3)

```

Note that page 1 is linked as `/trail-shoes/`, not `/trail-shoes/?page=1`, so there aren’t two URLs for the first page.

## Infinite scroll and “load more”

A “load more” button or infinite scroll that fetches items with JavaScript is fine for users, but crawlers don’t click or scroll. Back it with paginated URLs: each batch should also be reachable at a real `?page=N` address linked from the page, and the URL in the address bar can update as the user scrolls.

## Common mistakes

**Canonicalizing every page to page 1.** This tells Google to ignore pages 2+, so products that appear only deeper in the list may never be discovered through it.

- **Noindexing paginated pages.** It keeps them out of results, but over time Google may also stop following their links, cutting off deep items.

- **Blocking `?page=` in robots.txt**, which stops crawling of everything beyond page 1.

- **Endless parameter combinations** — pagination multiplied by sort orders and filters — which can waste a large part of your [crawl budget](https://yes-seo.com/glossary/crawl-budget). Keep sort and filter variants out of the crawlable link graph where possible.

- **Very deep pagination**. If an item is 40 clicks from the category page, link to it more directly through subcategories or better [internal linking](https://yes-seo.com/glossary/internal-linking).

## How to check

Open page 2 or 3 of a category and run it through the [Canonical Checker](https://yes-seo.com/canonical-checker). It shows the [canonical tag](https://yes-seo.com/glossary/canonical-tag) in the HTML and HTTP headers, whether it is absolute and self-referencing, and whether the target returns 200 and is indexable — the details that most often go wrong on paginated series.

## Frequently asked questions

### Should paginated pages canonicalize to page 1?

No. Each paginated page lists different items, so it should have a self-referencing canonical. Pointing all pages to page 1 can stop Google discovering items that only appear on later pages.

### Does Google still use rel=next and rel=prev?

No. Google said in 2019 that it no longer uses them as an indexing signal. They do no harm and other engines may read them, but sequential links and self-canonicals matter more.

### Is infinite scroll bad for SEO?

Only if it is the only way to reach content. Back infinite scroll or load-more buttons with real paginated URLs linked in the HTML so crawlers can reach every item.