Should we noindex paginated pages?

[Royal96]

Sometimes, the paginated pages of my homepage (displaying latest posts) rank above my articles.

So, for some search terms, "domain.com/page/123" appears instead of "domain.com/article".

Looks like a duplicate content issue. Should I set these pages to noindex?

 

[tiiberius]

It's only duplicate content issue if canonical is not set.

Pages that have been noindexed will stop passing juice after some time so posts on them will get none. Unless you link to them elsewhere.

 

[Alexion]

You don't need to do anything.
On the next google update, the search results will auto-correct themselves, and those pages will be removed
Don't worry about it.

Sure Google bot knows this much.

 

[Royal96]

It's only duplicate content issue if canonical is not set.

Pages that have been noindexed will stop passing juice after some time so posts on them will get none. Unless you link to them elsewhere.

So, you mean the homepage is passing the link juice through the pagination to my posts, even if they are not on the homepage?

That would be a good reason to keep these pages indexed, thanks!

You don't need to do anything.
On the next google update, the search results will auto-correct themselves, and those pages will be removed
Don't worry about it.

Sure Google bot knows this much.

Makes sense, it's definitely not the case for all of my posts. Thanks guys, I think I will just keep them indexed.

 

[SirLouen]

Follow this and forget about noindex stories

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/ecommerce/pagination-and-incremental-page-loading
If you are using WordPress this is done by default by most popular Themes, so no much to worry, except for the fact that your main pages are worse than a paginate page, which is something relatively worrisome (bad interlinking in your behalf probably).

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

It's only duplicate content issue if canonical is not set.

Pages that have been noindexed will stop passing juice after some time so posts on them will get none. Unless you link to them elsewhere.

I dont think so. Pages that have the noindex tag can still serve for crawlers to run through and follow the links on those pages.

Only if you also add nofolIow tag will the crawlers totally leave the page.

You don't need to do anything.
On the next google update, the search results will auto-correct themselves, and those pages will be removed
Don't worry about it.

Sure Google bot knows this much.

Absolutely not. They will remain indexed for a million years and google wont remove them from the serps, unless you set them to noindex.

 

[tiiberius]

I dont think so. Pages that have the noindex tag can still serve for crawlers to run through and follow the links on those pages.

Only if you also add nofolIow will the crawlers totally leave the page.

Well that's just it.

Long-term noindex will lead to automatic nofollow for present links.

 

[tiiberius]

So, you mean the homepage is passing the link juice through the pagination to my posts, even if they are not on the homepage?

That would be a good reason to keep these pages indexed, thanks!

Yes but canonical should be present and link to itself.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

Well that's just it.

Long-term noindex will lead to automatic nofollow for present links.

I don't think so. I'm no expert by the way.

So say you have

Homepage.com (indexed)
Homepage.com/page/1 (noindex)

A crawler hits your homepage, and travels to homepage.com/page/1

So what you're saying is that the crawler won't follow any of the links on that page, because the page is noindex long-term. But then, what's "long-term" exactly?

I think you're wrong man. All due respect.

Unless I'm misunderstanding you, or I'm misinformed, of course

 

[4440]

I've looked into paginated page issues for some time.

Quick answer is you don't have to do anything about it, google handled it well.

Index, noindex it's all fine. For canonical issues, I've seen sites with self-canonical , canonical to first page or no canonical at all.

If you don't want it to show in serps, noindex it.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

If you don't want it to show in serps, noindex it.

That's why I set noindex for all my paginated pages recently.

You google "site:mysite.com" and the ENTIRE first page is full of paginated pages

homepage.com
homepage.com/page/1
homepage.com/page/2
etc
etc
etc

I don't like that. I'd rather exact articles with their titles be in the serps, not some vague pagination pages.

I guess I feel as though a user may search for a specific thing and click on my page about that specific thing. But clicking on my page and going to a pagination page, sure they'll see a bunch of articles there, but, I just think it's best they go to the article they're looking for str8 from the serps.

 

[4440]

That's why I set noindex for all my paginated pages recently.

You google "site:mysite.com" and the ENTIRE first page is full of paginated pages

homepage.com
homepage.com/page/1
homepage.com/page/2
etc
etc
etc

I don't like that. I'd rather exact articles with their titles be in the serps, not some vague pagination pages.

I guess I feel as though a user may search for a specific thing and click on my page about that specific thing. But clicking on my page and going to a pagination page, sure they'll see a bunch of articles there, but, I just think it's best they go to the article they're looking for str8 from the serps.

Yes.

But in reality, most of the time your paginated page won't show up in serps. When you search something, it's always your post page that show up in serps. Unless you do site:mysite.com and you get couple of results with some paginated pages showed up.

That's also the reason why most SEO plugins set noindex to category pages by default.

If your site is a blog with no static front page, you can noindex the paginated homepage. Otherwise, it usually won't cause you any real-life trouble.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

Yes.

But in reality, most of the time your paginated page won't show up in serps. When you search something, it's always your post page that show up in serps. Unless you do site:mysite.com and you get couple of results with some paginated pages showed up.

That's also the reason why most SEO plugins set noindex to category pages by default.

If your site is a blog with no static front page, you can noindex the paginated homepage. Otherwise, it usually won't cause you any real-life trouble.

I actually allow category pages to be indexed, but not category pagination pages

I figure, if someone is looking for something, and they land on the category filled with posts relevant to the topic, it's all good. That's why I allow category pages to be indexed.

 

[tiiberius]

I don't think so. I'm no expert by the way.

So say you have

Homepage.com (indexed)
Homepage.com/page/1 (noindex)

A crawler hits your homepage, and travels to homepage.com/page/1

So what you're saying is that the crawler won't follow any of the links on that page, because the page is noindex long-term. But then, what's "long-term" exactly?

I think you're wrong man. All due respect.

Unless I'm misunderstanding you, or I'm misinformed, of course

Yes, that is correct.

It is my experience and it's actually official.

In a matter of months.

I don't like that. I'd rather exact articles with their titles be in the serps, not some vague pagination pages.

I don't like that either but I'd rather not risk the loss of juice.

Besides this an indexing issue, not ranking one. Proper pages should still be served based on search queries.

If paginated pages are served that's a different issue.

I recently made the blog pages display all posts on a single page. No indexing issues and no pagination. Let's see what that does.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

Yes, that is correct.

It is my experience and it's actually official.

In a matter of months.


I don't like that either but I'd rather not risk the loss of juice.

Besides this an indexing issue, not ranking one. Proper pages should still be served based on search queries.

If paginated pages are served that's a different issue.

I recently made the blog pages display all posts on a single page. No indexing issues and no pagination. Let's see what that does.

Hm, i didnt know that. That sucks

Ive seen paginated pages being served with an article title. Im guessing an article that is or has been on that page in the past.

Regarding your all posts on a single page. Infinite autoscroll?

 

[tiiberius]

Hm, i didnt know that. That sucks

It's tricky.

I think basic contextual interlinking fixes this.

Ive seen paginated pages being served with an article title. Im guessing an article that is or has been on that page in the past.

Yeah it can be a mess.

Regarding your all posts on a single page. Infinite autoscroll?

I think Infinity Scroll would work but this is just a straight up showcase of all of them.

You have to scroll for a long time which might feel like an infinity though.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

It's tricky.

I think basic contextual interlinking fixes this.

Now that I was made aware of this, I thought about removing noindex from homepage pagination at least.

But then I figure, between interlinking articles in blog posts, and categories main pages (no pagination, because noindex), and recent posts widgets, and old posts being reshared on social media, google should still manage to reach all of my articles.

Still, it may be smart to leave the homepage pagination and let it be indexed and all that. Something to think about...

I think Infinity Scroll would work but this is just a straight up showcase of all of them.

You have to scroll for a long time which might feel like an infinity though.

So like a grid thing?

Yeah but what you're saying wouldn't really work well for SEO if the site/page has a lot of posts. Because the loading times for those pages would suffer if everything tries to get displayed as soon as person visits the page.

Then I'm thinking, unless you have something like lazy load for the content (or some of the content) as the user scrolls down. Like have lazy load for the images only, to strike a balance.

But then, this becomes something like infinite autoscroll.

And I have no idea how google's crawlers treat infinite autoscroll and lazy load. Is it competent enough to have the crawler make your site react and show the infinite autoscroll/lazy load content to the crawler, quickly and correctly? I don't know... but you probably do

 

[expert33]

I tried both I don think it matter if you index or not

 

[tiiberius]

But then I figure, between interlinking articles in blog posts, and categories main pages (no pagination, because noindex), and recent posts widgets, and old posts being reshared on social media, google should still manage to reach all of my articles.

They should still manage to find them, yes.

That's why I said proper interlinking is a good "workaround" if you noindex the pagination.

Yeah but what you're saying wouldn't really work well for SEO if the site/page has a lot of posts. Because the loading times for those pages would suffer if everything tries to get displayed as soon as person visits the page.

Then I'm thinking, unless you have something like lazy load for the content (or some of the content) as the user scrolls down. Like have lazy load for the images only, to strike a balance.

Yes, to improve UI lazy load can be used to take care of images. Text is visible right away.

It's just a few words really.
title + excerpt

I have 200 pages and it's like 5000 words. Nothing too insane.

Text itself takes little loading.

And it's all visible straight away in the source code.

But then, this becomes something like infinite autoscroll.

And I have no idea how google's crawlers treat infinite autoscroll and lazy load. Is it competent enough to have the crawler make your site react and show the infinite autoscroll/lazy load content to the crawler, quickly and correctly? I don't know... but you probably do

I'm pretty sure bots still struggle with Infinite scroll. So i just used straight grid - all in your face!

Again this is just matter of improving UI and Core Vital metrics. All is visible in the source straight away for the bots.