-
Title:
Pagination and SEO
-
Description:
Google's Maile Ohye examines the issues webmasters face with paginated content: paginated articles, product category listings, etc. She then explains the options available to those webmasters concerned about SEO, including rel="next" and rel="prev" HTML markup.
-
-
MAILE OHYE: Hi.
-
I'm Maile Ohye.
-
I've been at Google now for over
six years, working with
-
Search and with Webmaster
Tools.
-
I'd like to welcome
you to my home.
-
Let's chat about pagination
and SEO.
-
For today's agenda, we'll
first start with some
-
paginated content examples.
-
Then we'll get into some of the
negative side effects of
-
pagination and why you as a
webmaster might want to make
-
some effort as to not dilute
your indexing properties and
-
to show better results
to users.
-
Then we'll cover your
configuration.
-
And this comes in two parts--
-
for those of you webmasters with
paginated content and a
-
view-all page available, and
then for those of you
-
webmasters that have paginated
content but
-
without a view-all page.
-
So there's going to be two types
of configurations there.
-
Then we're going to step back
a little bit and talk about
-
what Google is doing to help
users with paginated content
-
and webmasters as well.
-
And then last, given your
configuration, whether you
-
have a view-all page available
or you have no view-all page
-
available, we'll look at the
options that you have for your
-
paginated content.
-
So let's go ahead and
start with some
-
paginated content examples.
-
Paginated content exists
throughout the web, and I'm
-
going to cover two of
those common cases.
-
One is a paginated article.
-
So let's say you go to your
favorite content site, and you
-
see the breaking news story.
-
"New studies prove that cookies
are superior nutrition
-
to vegetables." And that would
be quite the story.
-
But your favorite site might not
put this all on one page,
-
but instead, paginate it into
several component pages.
-
Now this one article has become
three, and this is an
-
example of paginated
content articles.
-
Another example of pagination
is for things like a product
-
category, like what you would
see on your favorite
-
e-commerce site.
-
So let's say this webmaster
is selling shapes.
-
They're selling six
types of shapes.
-
But rather than have it all on
one page, they have divided it
-
into two component pages, both
of them with shapes, creating
-
pagination again.
-
So two common ways are with
paginated content articles and
-
with paginated product
categories.
-
Now, what are some of the
negative side effects of this?
-
Well, there's a couple.
-
So I'd like to highlight two,
the first being that indexing
-
properties, like links and
anchor text, can be diluted
-
into the different component
URLs rather than being
-
consolidated to the
one article or to
-
the one product category.
-
So that's one of the negative
side effects.
-
The other is that the most
relevant page in the series
-
might not be reflected
in search results.
-
So if you're the webmaster for
this e-commerce site, you
-
might want users to be sent to
page one, say, of your series.
-
But because search engines see
this pagination as three
-
separate entities, searchers
might be sent to a different
-
page that might not be
the most relevant.
-
So those are a few of the
negative side effects of
-
pagination.
-
Now let's talk more about
your situation and the
-
configuration you have
on your site.
-
We're going to look at this in
terms of two different types
-
configurations.
-
One is with a view-all page
available, and the other is
-
with no view-all
page available.
-
Now, if your site has paginated
content with a
-
view-all page available, there
are a couple of things you
-
want to make sure
you test for.
-
One is make sure that you have
still decent latency on your
-
site meaning that, if a user
clicks on the view-all
-
version, that it doesn't take
them 15 seconds to load
-
because it's such a
long article, or
-
it's so many products.
-
But that they still have
a good experience--
-
say, the page only takes
four seconds to load.
-
The second thing to check for
if you have a view-all page
-
available is to make sure that
the page remains easily
-
navigable, meaning that users
can still find the content
-
that they want or the particular
product that they
-
want by easily scrolling
or viewing headings.
-
So that's the configuration of
a view-all page available.
-
And then obviously, without a
view-all page available, it's
-
fairly straightforward.
-
So think about your site in
terms of configuration you
-
have. But before we go there,
let's take a step back and
-
talk a little bit about
what Google is doing.
-
We're, of course, always
working to improve the
-
experience for searchers.
-
And one thing that we found
through testing is that our
-
searchers prefer seeing the
view-all page in their search
-
results opposed to an individual
component page.
-
And one reason for this might
be because of latency.
-
So if you take search results
and you click on a result to a
-
view-all page, while that might
take, say, three seconds
-
to load that article that new
studies prove that cookies are
-
superior nutrition to
vegetables, that might be
-
three seconds.
-
But on the other hand, searchers
were less happy when
-
search results took them to just
page one of the article.
-
While that might have just had
two seconds of latency and
-
then the page loaded, every time
that user wanted to click
-
Next to read more of the
article, it caused some
-
additional load time.
-
So because of this latency and
other reasons, searches prefer
-
the view-all page.
-
So given this knowledge, one of
our engineers on indexing,
-
Benjia Li, actually came
out with a new feature
-
in October of 2011.
-
This is--
-
"When we detect that a paginated
series also contains
-
a view-all version, we're now
making a larger effort to
-
return the view-all page
in search results when
-
appropriate." So that's
great for searchers.
-
And what's even better for
webmasters is that while we
-
detect this view-all page, we'll
also still consolidate
-
indexing properties, like links,
to the view-all page.
-
So again, this is good for
searchers and good for you as
-
webmasters for all that indexing
consolidation.
-
Now, let's talk about some of
the options that you have as a
-
webmaster with paginated
content.
-
We're first going to look at the
situation where webmasters
-
have paginated the content and
a view-all page available.
-
But for those of you that have
no view-all page available,
-
it's still good if you pay
attention because some of
-
these options will apply
to you as well.
-
So you have a site with
paginated content and a
-
view-all page, you have
three good options.
-
First, you can leave as is.
-
There's nothing that you have
to do if you have other
-
priorities on your site.
-
Paginated content exists
throughout the web, and search
-
engines will continue
to do an even better
-
job of handling it.
-
And as I mentioned earlier, if
you have a view-all page
-
available, Google will
automatically try to detect
-
that, send searchers there, as
well as consolidate your
-
indexing properties.
-
So option one is a very
solid option.
-
But you also have
a second option.
-
The second option is to actually
use rel="canonical"
-
to explicitly hint to Google
what is your view-all page.
-
So while we try to detect it
algorithmically, you can also
-
tell us by writing
rel="canonical" on your
-
component pages to your
view-all version.
-
And this is kind of a more
explicit hint to us about how
-
your site is configured.
-
With the rel="canonical," as
many of you already know,
-
we'll of course consolidate the
indexing properties from
-
the component pages with
the canonical version.
-
So things like links will
also be transferred.
-
And then, of course,
we'll send users to
-
the view-all page.
-
So that's option number two.
-
The last option is actually done
by two of our engineers,
-
Joachim and Benjia.
-
And what this is is using the
standard HTML markup of
-
rel="next" and rel="prev" on
the component pages in your
-
series to signal to Google
that these are individual
-
pages, but they all belong
to one series.
-
So by adding this rel="next"
and rel="prev" markup, you
-
connect these individual
components into one.
-
You can do this by adding
rel="next" to page one and
-
then rel="prev" and rel="next"
to page two, all the way to
-
the last page, which only
includes a rel="prev".
-
And then, of course,
on your view-all
-
page, nothing is needed.
-
rel="next" and rel="prev" is
standard HTML markup, and it's
-
been around for years.
-
But now, Google is using this
markup for webmasters to let
-
us know about their
paginated content.
-
So let me explain some
ways that rel="next"
-
and rel="prev" work.
-
With rel="next" and rel="prev,"
much like you see
-
with something like
rel="canonical," we'll
-
actually consolidate indexing
properties from the component
-
pages of the series.
-
And in addition, unlike
rel="canonical" that only
-
shows the view-all page in
search results, with
-
rel="next" and rel="prev," we're
going to override that
-
behavior and send users
to only one of
-
the component pages.
-
Most likely, this will be page
one, because commonly that's
-
the most relevant page.
-
So now if you have, say, that
product category, selling
-
shapes, if you use the
rel="next" and rel="prev"
-
markup, it'll tell us
that these two pages
-
belong to one series.
-
And then most commonly, we'll
send users to page one.
-
Know that rel="next" and
rel="prev" is a strong hint.
-
It's not a mandate
by any means.
-
The last thing I want to say
about rel="next" and
-
rel="prev" is that component
URLs in a series should be
-
consistent with their
parameters.
-
So let's take the article of new
studies prove that cookies
-
are superior nutrition
to vegetables.
-
Now, let's say that these pages
contain a session ID.
-
All of these values for
rel="prev" and rel="next"
-
should also contain
the session ID.
-
And this is because our
indexing team looks to
-
actually link every page in a
series with what was declared
-
previous and what was
declared next.
-
And when they do that, they want
to make sure-- say you're
-
on page two--
-
that the rel="prev" that
states rel="prev" is
-
page-1&sid=123, they will
go to that URL.
-
But that URL actually
has to list page two
-
with the same sid.
-
And that's how we can link every
page in the sequence.
-
So be sure to keep parameters
throughout your entire series.
-
So let's recap those
three options.
-
If you have a view-all
page available, you
-
can leave as is.
-
You could also explicitly state
rel="canonical" to your
-
view-all page.
-
Or you can override the view-all
page behavior by
-
adding rel="next" and
rel="prev." By adding
-
rel="next" and rel="prev," you
will help us consolidate
-
component pages in a series.
-
But instead of sending users to
a view-all page, we'll then
-
send searchers to one component
page., most likely
-
page one of your series.
-
Now, let's talk about the
configuration with no view-all
-
page available.
-
So for those of you webmasters
that have paginated content
-
and no view-all page, you
have two options.
-
First, of course, you
can leave as is.
-
That's perfectly fine.
-
And then your second option is
also to use rel="next" and
-
rel="prev." Again, by using
rel="next" and rel="prev," it
-
connects the component pages
in the series, and
-
consolidates indexing
properties, and helps us to
-
send searchers to the most
relevant page, which is likely
-
the first page of the series.
-
Now I'm going to beat you to the
punch and ask one of the
-
most commonly asked questions
about rel="canonical" as well
-
as rel="next," "prev." And that
is why rel="next" and
-
rel="prev" for a paginated
series rather than
-
rel="canonical" to page one?
-
Ha!
-
I bet you were thinking that.
-
The answer is that
rel="canonical" is for
-
duplicate content.
-
So let's take that article.
-
Let's say page two of
the article, cookies
-
are superior nutrition.
-
If this page actually has a
session ID attached, then it
-
can list as the canonical the
same version, the duplicate
-
conversion, but without
a session ID Because
-
rel="canonical" is for duplicate
content, or it's for
-
content which is a superset.
-
So here we have page one, page
two, and page three, all
-
linking to the canonical
version being
-
the view-all version.
-
And that's perfectly
fine as well.
-
The thing about rel="canonical"
is that it
-
only indexes content from
the canonical version.
-
So let's go ahead and
take a look at this.
-
If we have page two and page
three, page two says "cookies
-
are superior nutrition,"
and page three says "to
-
vegetables".
-
But they both add
rel="canonical"
-
just to page one.
-
And Google's index will then
cluster page one, page two,
-
and page three all together.
-
But the only thing that we'll
have indexed is the content
-
from page one, the canonical
version.
-
So our index will actually
contain "new studies prove
-
that."
-
And now by using this
rel="canonical" incorrectly,
-
this webmaster has totally lost
the content "cookies are
-
superior nutrition" and "to
vegetables." So that's why
-
rel="canonical" doesn't
work in this case.
-
But rel="next," "prev"
works for a series or
-
a sequence of content.
-
So let's take those two
paginated examples again.
-
By using rel="next" and
rel="prev," we'll actually, in
-
Google's index, mark
it as a series.
-
But we'll have page one, page
two, and page three all
-
indexed separately.
-
So in our index, we know page
one refers to "new studies
-
prove that," page two,
"cookies are superior
-
nutrition," and page three, "to
vegetables." And all three
-
pages will be indexed and
marked as one series.
-
So that's the big difference
between rel="canonical" and
-
rel="next" "prev."
-
So something to note is that
rel="canonical" can actually
-
be used alongside rel="next"
"prev." So let's take a look
-
at page two again.
-
And this time, it has
a session ID.
-
This URL can actually list both
the canonical version
-
without a session ID as well as
a rel="prev" and rel="next"
-
with, of course, the same
parameters, including that
-
session ID.
-
So now let's recap your new
pagination toolbox.
-
Starting with Google, we have
two new features for you.
-
First, we're making a better
effort to detect a view-all
-
page, and then send
searchers to that
-
preferred view-all version.
-
The second feature is if you
want to actually even override
-
that behavior.
-
So for those of you with a
view-all page available or
-
without, if you add markup
with rel="next" and
-
rel="prev," it signals to
Google that these are
-
component pages in a series.
-
We'll then consolidate indexing
properties, and send
-
searchers to the most relevant
page, most likely page one.
-
Now, let's get into
the types of
-
configurations you have available.
-
So recapping, if you have a
view-all page available, you
-
have three options.
-
You can leave as is.
-
You can use rel="canonical" on
your component pages, pointing
-
to your view-all page.
-
Or you can override all the
view-all detection by adding
-
rel="next" and rel="prev,"
telling us that these
-
component pages belong
to a series.
-
And I'd like you, Google, to
send searchers to the most
-
relevant individual page,
again, likely page one.
-
Now, the other part of the
pagination toolbox is for
-
those of you with no view-all
available, and
-
you have two options.
-
Of course, you can leave
exactly as is.
-
Or again, you can use rel="next"
and rel="prev."
-
This helps you to consolidate
all the component pages into
-
one series and send searchers
to the most relevant page.
-
So the great thing about these
pagination features is that
-
I've been at Google long enough
to see the infancy from
-
when the webmaster community was
talking to us about issues
-
with pagination until now when
we have more features
-
available to you.
-
So thank you so much to all of
you for your helpful feedback
-
and for being part of this
webmaster community.
-
For more information on
pagination, here are some
-
links available.
-
And you can, of course, join
us at the Webmaster Central
-
Blog or in the Webmaster
Discussion Forum.
-
Thanks for your time.
-
