The document discusses different SEO pagination techniques presented by Adam Audette at SMX West 2012. It outlines three primary methods: classic pagination, view all, and fresh pagination, each with its goals, requirements, and outcomes related to search engine visibility and user experience. Recommendations are provided for implementing these techniques effectively, emphasizing the importance of signal consolidation and page load speeds.

1. The Ultimate Guide to
Pagination for SEO
SMX West 2012
> Adam Audette
> @audette
President, RKG
www.rimmkaufman.com

2. Pagination: Gettin’ Jiggy With It
2

3. 3 Ways to Get Jiggy
> Classic SEO Pagination technique
 Page 1 is canonical
 Component pages noindex
> View All technique
 Elegant
 Hard to get implemented
> The “Fresh” method
 rel next / prev
 Assorted other signals

4. Classic Pagination Method
> Primary Goals
 Surface only page 1 in results (the canonical)
 Control inbound SEO experience (as much as possible)
 Items/products on component pages get crawled

5. Secondary goal: get jiggy

6. Classic Pagination Requirements
Annotations:
• pages 2-N annotated with
noindex, follow
pp. 2-N • pages 2-N self-referencing rel
canonical
• pages 2-N contain unique
titles, URLs, and meta data

7. Classic Pagination Method
p. 1
Fresh
Prince
pp. 2 pp. 3 pp. 4
• Hi-top • Bel-Air • One-
fade strap
overall

8. Classic Pagination Method
p. 1
pp. 2-N

9. Classic Pagination Method
> Results
 Page 1 is displayed as the ranking URL in results
 Component pages get crawled; but equity is not directly passed
to canonical
 Component pages in series get crawled but not
indexed, therefore don’t compete with page 1

10. Result? Pretty jiggy!

11. View All Pagination Tactic
> Goals
 Surface only the View All page in results
 Consolidate scoring signals to View All

12. View All Pagination Requirements
Annotations:
• pages 2-N specify View All as rel
View All canonical target
• View All page must load fast
• View All contains all data in the
series
pp. 2-N

13. View All Pagination Tactic
View All
pp. 2-N

14. View All Pagination Tactic
> Results
 View All is displayed as the ranking URL in results
 Component pages transfer scoring signals to View All
 High-quality View All pages (if fast) can perform well

15. Result? Nerdier Than Carlton

16. Side Note: View Alls
> Challenges
 View All pages must be fast (≤ 3 seconds to load)
 Big sites (esp. ecomm) sometimes dislike them (see above)
 … but users love them! (if they’re fast)

19. “Fresh” Pagination Tactic
> Goals
 Surface only page 1 in results (the canonical)
 Control inbound SEO experience (as much as possible)
 Consolidate scoring signals to canonical

20. Secondary goal: even more jiggy

21. “Fresh” Pagination Requirements
Annotations:
• Pages 2-N annotated with rel
next, prev
pp. 2-N • pages 2-N self-referencing rel
canonical
• pages 2-N contain unique
titles, URLs, and meta data
• (Optional) pages 2-N annotated
with noindex, follow

22. “Fresh” Pagination Tactic
p. 1
pp. 2-N
[ rel prev / next ]

23. Result? Jiggy’est of all

24. “Fresh” Pagination Tactic
> Results
 Page 1 is displayed as the ranking URL in results
 Rel prev / next consolidate signals across the series
 rel canonical (self-referencing only) pulls any URL dupes
 (Optional) noindex, follow pulls component pages from results

25. Side Note on Gettin’ Fresh
> Important to keep in mind
 Pages with rel next/prev can still be shown in results
 But this is an extreme “edge case”
 Can optionally use noindex
 Use of rel next/prev consolidates signals across the entire series

26. Another Side Note
> Big innovations at Google Search Quality?
 rel next/prev is a “…strong hint for Google to identify the series of
pages and still surface a component page in results.”
 Note rel=alternate hreflang=x
 Google uses these new tools to consolidate signals and still
make decisions about surfacing URLs in search results at
search time

27. Recommendations
> When you have a great View All
 Add rel canonical targets to the View All on all component pages
in a series
 Ensure the View All contains all the data found on the component
pages
 Ensure the View All loads in at least 3 seconds
27

28. Recommendations
> When View All isn’t an option
 Use the rel prev/next method to consolidate signals across the
series
 Advantage over Classic method which relied on noindex to keep
out of index but get equity through the crawl
 Use self-referencing rel canonical
 (Optional) Use noindex
28

29. The Freshest!

30. Thank you!
Adam Audette
@audette
aaudette@rimmkaufman.com