How to optimize paginated pages for Google SEO?

[born2run]

Hi I have a news section with 10 articles per page, and then there is a pagination line with page numbers that you click to read the next page of 10 news articles.

I'd like to know from experts here, how to set this page for Google SEO? Detailed answer would be helpful..

[goodroi]

I focus less on paginated links because Google tends to value them less. I focus more on interlinking related articles with embedded links inside the content. There are many plugins that will automatically link keywords to archived articles.

[keyplyr]

I focus more on interlinking related articles with embedded links inside the content.

Agreed... works great. I started doing it years ago when I saw Wikipedia doing so well with it.

[phranque]

Indicate paginated content:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663744?hl=en [support.google.com]

If you paginate content on your site, and you want that content to appear in search results, we recommend one of the following three options.

Do nothing.
...
Specify a View All page.
...
Use rel="next" and rel="prev" links.
...

[born2run]

Hi can anyone please explain how to implement "Use rel="next" and rel="prev" links" on my pages that are paginated?

Thanks so much!

[keyplyr]

Here's a pretty good tut: [yoast.com...]

[EditorialGuy]

I don't see how pagination is going to do much when each of the pages is a collection of 10 stories (as opposed to a single story with a specific focus).

Pagination makes sense in a multi-page article like:

BAKED GOODS

Page 1 - Introduction
Page 2 - Pies
Page 3 - Cakes
Page 4 - Breads

...and so on.

It works because it tells Google that all the pages are part of a larger entity. At the same time, each page is about a specific subtopic and can answer a search query on that subtopic..

What you're proposing is something altogether different: creating seemingly random links between pages that have no clear topic or focus (since each consists of 10 separate news stories). IMO, it would make far more sense for each story to occupy its own page and for the stories to cite related articles. In other words, if you had a story today about an alligator attack in the Everglades, that story or page could link to earlier stories about alligator attacks, alligators in Florida, the Everglades, etc. This might have some SEO benefits, and--just as important--it would drive traffic to related pages on your site.

[Robert Charlton]

For paginating articles that were intended as a sequence, the Google support page that phranque links to, along with the embedded Google video on the page, is about the best treatment of pagination I've seen. That said, as EditorialGuy points out, what you describe are not articles meant to be paginated.

...and then there is a pagination line with page numbers that you click to read the next page of 10 news articles

In general, this kind of numbered interface running along the bottom of a page is one of the most user-unfriendly interfaces I've ever seen. The numbers provide absolutely no context for the user to find anything. Even if there were only one article per page, it would be impossible to find anything. With 10, you're talking about something that's for all intents and purposes, essentially unusable, both for users and for search engines.

Using page numbers on a forum thread, as on WebmasterWorld, would be different, because there's a continuity of posts and pages in a thread, and generally you'd either read through it from the beginning or use search. For forum post search, I've come to believe that "do nothing" is the best pagination approach. Read the Google article. You may have to read it, then watch the video, and then read it again. Pagination is a difficult subject.

For a news section as you describe, I'd switch to one article per page, and then classify the articles either topically or chronologically or both... and use a hierarchical category structure if there are very many articles or categories. Unless you already have links to the individual articles, I wouldn't even bother to redirect what you have now. Just let those pages go 404. They couldn't possibly be well-indexed for search in the present setup.

[phranque]

I don't see how pagination is going to do much when each of the pages is a collection of 10 stories (as opposed to a single story with a specific focus).

Pagination makes sense in a multi-page article like:

https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/links.html#sequential-link-types

4.8.4.13 Sequential link types

Some documents form part of a sequence of documents.

A sequence of documents is one where each document can have a previous sibling and a next sibling. A document with no previous sibling is the start of its sequence, a document with no next sibling is the end of its sequence.

A document may be part of multiple sequences.

a sequence of documents does not have to be limited to a multi page article or a multi chapter book,
you are presuming these pages would be irrelevant to the search results.
by identifying these pages as a sequence of documents, you also make it easier for google to exclude irrelevant pages from search results.

in the case described, these may be a collection of articles on a news subject category such as sports, local, arts&entertainment.
if my search is for "My Local Media Outlet sports section" i'd sure like the google serp to return page one from that sequence of documents.