Understanding SEO pagination: a 10-point guide

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What is a Pagination SEO?

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In the field of natural referencing (or Search Engine Optimization(SEO), it's essential to structure your site properly so that you can offer user experience and improve its visibility on search engines such as Google.

One element that is often overlooked by SEOs is pagination, even though it plays a vital role in the organisation of a site. website.

In this article, we take a look at what SEO pagination is in 10 points.

1. Definition of pagination

La pagination is the way in which the pages of a website containing large amounts of information or content are organised and divided. It means that not all the elements are displayed on a single page, but rather they are spread across several separate pages that can be accessed via digital navigation links.

2. The importance of pagination for the user experience

Pagination is of real benefit to users, as it makes it much easier to navigate a site without being overwhelmed by a multitude of content. For example, when consulting a blog or an online product catalogue, pagination allows you to consult only some of the entries without having to scroll endlessly down the page.

3. Influence of pagination on SEO

Pagination also has an impact on natural referencing. It avoids duplication of content (duplicate content), which can be detrimental to a site's SEO performance. What's more, good page structuring through pagination makes it easier for exploration robots of search engines, thereby improving the indexing of the site.

a) Avoiding duplication of content

Duplicate content occurs when several pages on a site repeat the same information or content. Search engines, such as Google, tend to penalise this practice by reducing the positioning of the sites concerned in their search results. Pagination helps to prevent this problem by distributing content across different pages.

b) Improving indexing by crawlers

A good pagination system makes it easier for search engine spiders to navigate your site, which in turn improves its indexing. On the other hand, poorly optimised pagination can make it difficult for these robots to crawl and index all the pages on your site, and therefore harm its visibility on search engines.

4. Basic principles of good SEO pagination

To set up effective SEO pagination, it is important to follow certain rules:

• Make digital navigation links clear and visible
• Ensure that the first and last pages are always accessible
• Limit the number of pages displayed in digital browsing
• Using meta tags to guide exploration robots
• Encouraging URL clean and legible for each paginated page

5. HTML link rel= "next " and rel= "prev "

To help search engines better understand the structure of paginated pages, we recommend using the attributes rel= "next " and rel= "prev " in your links HTML. These two attributes tell crawlers the next and previous pages of your pagination respectively.

6. canonical" meta tag

La meta tag " canonical " should also be used to avoid any duplication of content. It tells search engines which is the original version of a page when they come across several similar or identical versions on your site.

7. Using the sitemap.xml file

The file sitemap.xml is an essential tool for improving the indexing of your site by search engines. It provides a list of all the URLs on your site that you want to be indexed, including those of paginated pages. Be sure to include paginated pages in your sitemap to help crawlers identify them more easily.

8. Balance between the number of items displayed and the number of pages

It is important to balance the number of elements displayed on each page with the total number of paginated pages. Displaying too few elements per page can be detrimental to the user experience, while too many pages can complicate navigation and indexing.

9. Avoiding classic mistakes

Several common mistakes can compromise the effectiveness of your SEO pagination:

• Do not use HTML rel= "next " and rel= "prev " links
• Forgetting to include your paginated pages in the sitemap.xml
• Display an excessive number of numerical links for navigation
• Incorrect balance between the number of items displayed and the number of pages

10. Consider alternatives to pagination

Finally, it's worth thinking about the different alternatives to pagination that exist. For example, you could opt for filter-based navigation or infinite loading, which consists of loading new content automatically when the user reaches the bottom of the page. However, these solutions also have their own specific SEO features, so it's important to study their advantages and disadvantages carefully before implementing them.