Search engine optimization is not an easy task. Often it does not have any specific rules and algorithms. Much has to be "groped" for oneself. But SEO is a speci alty that has been practiced for more than 10 years, and experts are trying to find some universal solutions for different tasks.
Pagination in a publisher
From Latin, the word is translated as "page". Pagination has several meanings. The term is also used in publishing. Almost everyone who has ever held a book in their hands is familiar with him.
Pagination is the numbering of pages in order. It is represented by columns, which can be at the bottom, top or side of the page. In this case, there is also the concept of automatic numbering, but it works according to complex algorithms that cannot work correctly in everything.
Pagination with SEO
Pagination pages in web design are also found by everyone who has ever used a search service. For example, when you enter a query on Google, only 10 results are shown on the page, it all depends on the setting.
To go further, you just use pagination. Designers use this option to separate arrays of text and organize information. The block itself, on which numbers are displayed, is called a paginator.
Development
Pagination pages are one of the essential elements when working with website usability. It is unlikely that you will be able to avoid it if you have an online store with an impressive catalog.
Experts know that a page must be relevant to a query. Therefore, it is important to avoid countless duplicates and identical titles. In order not to encounter such things, a paginator is installed on the page.
What should be the pagination? This is a question that worries many. You can talk a lot about this topic and still not find an answer. The main thing is to adhere to the rules and regulations.
Implementation methods
Of course, there is definitely no single classification in this case. Many variants begin to merge over time, creating even more types. However, the main and most popular can be distinguished:
- Universal pagination that has sequential numbering. At the same time, there are additional “Forward / Back” buttons on the right and left.
- Pagination with range. In this case, the user can select a specific range of pages, which may contain the desired product.
- The reverse type is not so common, because it is not very convenient to use. However, such an option exists, so it is worth mentioning it. This type is similar torange, but numbered backwards.
Of course, you've probably come across a few other options that might be useful to you. Here it is important to consider the size of the catalog and the convenience of using the paginator.
Types
You can use pagination pages in different cases, while using the implementation that is most beneficial for your resource. But where would pagination be appropriate?
For example, if the site has long articles. To make them easier to read, many break them into several parts. In this case, arrows or inscriptions like “Forward / Back”, “Previous / Next”, etc. are almost always added on both sides of the numbering
Pagination in this case can be seen in the URL. Each individual page receives its own address and is numbered according to what is indicated on the site itself.
The component is also placed on pagination pages with categories. If the directory is large, then it will have many sections and subsections. They will all have to be separated somehow, and in order not to get lost in all this, it is better to introduce numbering.
It will not be superfluous to use this tool on the forums as well. It's easy to get lost in the many comments. Therefore, it is important for developers to organize information and make it available even after other data has taken its place.
By the way, in this case it is better to organize pagination in the URL based on dates. In this case, it will be easier to understand the relevance of the information.
Another type of pagination is endlessscroll. You could meet her on social networks and on sites that value your attention. How does the tool work in this case?
A script is installed on the page, which is responsible for infinite scrolling. That is, when you go down to the very bottom of the page, suddenly it turns out that you are already in the middle of it, and there are new posts or products ahead.
Optimization benefits
You can argue endlessly about pagination pages in SEO. Some experts believe that the tool does not affect the site optimization in any way, while others are convinced that by fine-tuning the paginator can be made a driving force.
About the benefits everyone can see for themselves. You will also have to decide whether to close pagination pages from indexing or not, since a lot really depends on the type of resource. But there are a few things to be aware of.
As you know, in order to index all pages, it is important to give access to them. The robot, of course, must pass all categories and subcategories. If the site has 100 pages, then it will quickly check the first few, but “the further into the forest”, the longer it will do the job. Pagination helps him find the right pages much faster.
Another factor that may influence your decision is how you work with links. If there is no numbering on the site, then you have to work with a large array of links, because of which they can be banned. Pagination in this regard is a much more legal way.
And, of course, usability is everything! It is unlikely that any of youvisitors will be happy about the lack of pagination. After all, in this case, in order for him to get to the right product, he will have to “shovel” more than a dozen pages.
What problems might you encounter?
Few people realize that pagination pages are not an easy tool to customize. Just implementing it, but not setting it up is not the best idea. The fact is that you may encounter a number of problems that can harm your site. Basic:
- visit limit for robots;
- fight against duplicates.
Robots periodically crawl the site. In this case, a lot depends on the credibility of your site. The more trust you have, the more time the robot will spend on the site. If you have added a large number of pages with pagination, then it is very unlikely that the robot will crawl each one and reach the end point. In addition, if he spends time on such unimportant pages, he may miss the really important content that you have been working on and optimization depends on.
An equally important problem concerns duplicates. Every specialist knows that the presence of similar or identical pages usually leads to embarrassing situations on the part of search engines.
If you work with pagination, you can create similar or completely identical pages. The title, title and description will also be repeated. Because of this, the search engine will not be able to correctly evaluate the relevance of such pages, and therefore the visitor may encounter the fact that the material received on request does not suit him at all.
What to do?
Of course, so that there are no problems with indexing pagination pages, you can use one of the solutions:
- delete with noindex;
- implementation of "View all" and commands>
It should be noted right away that there are many more solutions to problems. There are options for which you will have to call a programmer who understands this. But there are options with which it will not be so difficult to figure it out on your own. Some specialists can combine several solutions, and someone can completely neglect it without suffering from search engine errors.
Using noindex
The easiest way is to close pagination pages. This is a very simple method that even a beginner can handle. What is its essence? It will be enough to hide all pagination pages from indexing, except for the first one.
How to do it? For everything to work, you need to use the following command:. This meta tag needs to be embedded on all the pages that we are going to hide in the. Don't forget that the first page must still be accessible.
This solution will help eliminate all unnecessary duplicates, while the catalog itself will function correctly, and the products from it will be indexed.
When setting up the indexing of pagination pages, you should take into account some facts that will again affect the optimization of the resource. If there is a description in the catalog or on the main page, it is better not to duplicate it on other pages. Since only the firstwill be indexed, it is advisable to throw all your efforts into its optimization.
It is also worth making sure that the address of the first page is not duplicated anywhere else, otherwise closing it may even lead to the absence of indexing of the entire catalog.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of this method? This option is great for Yandex, it is easy and fast to work with. But at the same time, it should be understood that page content may disappear, and in the absence of a sitemap, the robot will index a very large catalog for a long time.
“View all” and the commands you have not decided whether to close pagination pages from indexing, you can consider another solution to problems that everyone can conditionally face.
This option was previously proposed by Google. Developers are encouraged to create a separate "View all" page. It contains all the products in the catalog. For the system to work, you need to leave the attribute on “View All” on each pagination page.
How to implement all this? The option is similar to the one proposed in the previous section. The only difference is in the team. This time you need to use: in the same block on all pagination pages.
Google claims that this is the most correct option for their search engine. Of course, it is not necessary to follow it, since it has both pros and cons. It's important to remember that See All is best done very quickly. It should not take a long time to load and make the user wait. The method is suitable for compactcategories with pagination pages.
The disadvantages of this method of solution include some exceptions. For example, the option will not work if the catalog is really huge, has a large number of pages, and even high-quality pictures. The method will not be easy to implement on most CMS.
Rel=“prev”/“next”
This is the most difficult solution to implement. If you want to implement this method yourself, it's better to study everything in advance, as mistakes can lead to serious optimization losses.
Using the attribute, all pagination page numbers can be combined with each other. In this case, Google, with the right settings, combines them all into one and makes a chain. Thus, from the entire catalog, only the main page will be indexed.
How to set up such optimization of pagination pages? The whole process starts from the main page. Enter the following command in the block:. As you can see, this is a link to the second page of the catalog.
Now go to it and use the same command, but with links to the first and third pages. The same will need to be done on the third page, specifying an attribute with a link to the second and fourth. Starting from the fourth page, you should only link to the previous page.
It is also worth understanding that the method only works with the Google search engine and has a lot of nuances. For example, you will need to check that there are no duplicate home page URLs. You need to configure it very carefully, because with the slightest mistakeindexing will become unmanaged and will work according to Google algorithms.
This method really helps to solve the problem without using the new page method. In addition, the implementation of HTML is subject to only minimal changes.
Conclusions
So, pagination pages are not a very complicated concept, but it requires a special approach when optimizing a site. Interestingly, Google itself offers one of the solutions to leave everything as it is, that is, do not hide pagination and do not even create page chains.
But almost all experts insist that the absence of any optimization and tuning steps can have a bad effect on promotion in general. Duplicates may appear on the site, and important pages will be poorly indexed.
