SEO: Pagination Best Practices in 2026

Google removed support for rel=prev/next in 2019.
Pagination SEO now relies on different signals. Here is the current best practice.

The Core Problem with Pagination

Page 2+ of a blog or category:

• Gets fewer backlinks than page 1
• Has lower click-through rate from search
• Competes with page 1 for the same topic

Most sites: Only page 1 deserves to rank. Pages 2-N should not be indexed.

Current Recommendation: Noindex Paginated Pages

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow" />

Apply to all paginated URLs: /blog/page/2/, /category/?page=2, etc.
"Follow": Googlebot still follows links on the page to discover content.
"Noindex": Google does not index or rank the paginated page.

Keep canonical on page 1

Page 1 (/blog/) should have a self-referential canonical.
Do not set canonical on pages 2-N pointing to page 1 — this confuses crawlers.

Load More and Infinite Scroll

From Google's perspective: JavaScript-loaded content may not be crawled.
For SEO: Static paginated HTML remains the safest pattern.
If using infinite scroll: Render server-side or provide a static fallback URL.

Exception: When to Index Paginated Pages

Index paginated pages only if they have unique standalone value.
This is rare. Most sites should noindex all paginated URLs beyond page 1.

Technical SEO and site architecture: yositeup.com