Category pages, blogs and search results often split items over several pages, or load more as you scroll.
Pagination
- Give each page its own URL:
/blog?page=2. - Link pages with normal
<a href>links (next, previous, numbers). - Each page can be canonical to itself; do not canonicalise page 2 to page 1.
- Unique titles help, for example "Blog — page 2".
Infinite scroll
Visitors like it, but crawlers do not scroll. Make sure each batch also has a paginated URL that loads without JavaScript, and update the address as the visitor scrolls.
How many items per page?
Enough that pages are useful but not so many that they load slowly. For product lists, 24–48 items is common. For blogs, 10–20 posts.
Links to items
Make sure every item in a list is reachable through pagination or category links. Items only reachable through on-site search may never be crawled.
Load more buttons
A "load more" button that fetches items with JavaScript should also work as a normal link to the next page, so crawlers can follow it.
Thin paginated pages
Page 37 of a category rarely ranks. That is fine; its job is to let crawlers reach the items on it. Focus your content on page one.
View-all pages
A single page with all items can work for small lists, as long as it loads quickly.
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