How Do You Handle Pagination For International Sites?

Story Based Question

Imagine you’re managing an e-commerce website that sells clothing worldwide. Your site has a lot of products, so it’s organized with multiple pages of products for each category. The categories are translated into multiple languages for different regions, such as English for the US, Spanish for Mexico, and French for France. However, you’ve noticed that the pages are being split into multiple subpages for each language. You’re not sure how to handle pagination for international audiences to make sure your SEO stays strong across all regions. What should you do to ensure pagination doesn’t hurt your international SEO efforts?

Exact Answer

To handle pagination for international sites, use rel=“next” and rel=“prev” tags to indicate a series of paginated pages. Ensure the pagination is localized by using hreflang tags for different languages and regions, and make sure that each paginated page is indexed correctly without causing duplicate content issues.

Explanation

Pagination is a common issue for websites with a lot of content, especially e-commerce or product catalog sites. When dealing with multiple languages and regions, the key is to ensure that your paginated pages are indexed and ranked properly by search engines. Here’s how you can manage pagination for international SEO:

1. Use rel=”next” and rel=”prev” Tags

These tags tell search engines that your paginated pages are part of a series. The rel=”next” and rel=”prev” tags help Google understand the relationship between different pages in a pagination sequence, so it knows to treat them as one piece of content.

• Why This Matters: Without these tags, search engines might treat each paginated page as separate content, which could lead to issues with duplicate content. You also want to avoid splitting link equity (the ranking power passed from other sites to your pages) across different pages in the sequence.
  • Action: On your paginated pages, use the following code in the HTML header of each page:
    
    <link rel=”next” href=”https://example.com/category/page-2″ />
    <link rel=”prev” href=”https://example.com/category/page-1″ />

2. Implement hreflang Tags for Different Languages and Regions

When you’re working with international sites, each language or region should have its own hreflang tag to ensure that Google knows which version of the page to show based on the user’s language and location. This is especially important when you have paginated content in multiple languages.

• Why This Matters: Hreflang tags prevent Google from treating content in different languages or regions as duplicate content. Instead, it will serve the correct version to the user based on their location or language preference.
  • Action: For each paginated page, include the appropriate hreflang tag in the HTML header. For example, on a page that lists products in English (US), Spanish (Mexico), and French (France), you might include:
    
    <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en-us” href=”https://example.com/category/page-1″ />
    <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”es-mx” href=”https://example.com/categoria/pagina-1″ />
    <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”fr-fr” href=”https://example.com/categorie/page-1″ />

3. Avoid Indexing Paginated Pages If Not Needed

Not every paginated page needs to be indexed. If your paginated pages only show a small portion of content and don’t offer anything new in terms of SEO value, consider noindexing those pages. This ensures that Google doesn’t waste crawl budget on pages that don’t provide much SEO benefit.

• Why This Matters: It’s important to prioritize indexing high-value pages that are likely to bring traffic and conversions. By noindexing unnecessary paginated pages, you ensure that Google focuses on the most relevant content.
  • Action: Use a noindex tag on paginated pages that don’t add much value, for example:
    
    <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, follow”>

4. Consider Canonical Tags for Duplicate Content

In some cases, paginated pages might be seen as duplicate content by search engines, especially if the same products appear across multiple pages in a sequence. Using canonical tags can help direct search engines to treat the first page of a paginated series as the primary version to rank.

• Why This Matters: Canonical tags help consolidate ranking signals, ensuring that Google focuses on the most relevant page and avoids treating paginated pages as duplicates.
  • Action: On each paginated page, add a canonical link to point to the main category page:
    
    <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://example.com/category/page-1″ />

5. Monitor Regional Search Behavior

When managing pagination for international sites, be aware that different countries or languages might have different search behaviors. Some regions may prefer longer content on a single page, while others may expect more segmented or filtered pages. Tailor your pagination strategy to fit the preferences of your target market.

• Why This Matters: Customizing your pagination strategy for each market can help improve user experience, engagement, and ultimately rankings.
  • Action: Use Google Analytics and other tracking tools to observe user behavior in different regions. Adjust your pagination structure based on the insights you gather.

Example

Let’s say you run an e-commerce site that sells shoes globally, and you have a Men’s Shoes category page with over 100 products. You’ve translated this page into English (US), Spanish (Mexico), and French (France).

English (US) Version:

• Page 1 shows the first 20 shoes, with links to pages 2 and 3.
• Page 2 shows shoes 21–40, with links to pages 1 and 3.
• Page 3 shows shoes 41–60, with links to pages 2 and 4.

You’d set up rel=”next” and rel=”prev” tags for each page like this:

<link rel=”next” href=”https://example.com/mens-shoes/page-2″ />
<link rel=”prev” href=”https://example.com/mens-shoes/page-1″ />

For the Spanish (Mexico) version, you’d use hreflang tags like this:

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”es-mx” href=”https://example.com/zapatos-hombres/pagina-1″ />

For the French (France) version, you’d use:

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”fr-fr” href=”https://example.com/chaussures-homme/page-1″ />

Additionally, if pages 2–3 don’t add significant value, you could choose to noindex them and focus your SEO efforts on the first page:

<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, follow”>

By combining rel=”next” and rel=”prev”, hreflang tags, and canonical links, you ensure that your paginated pages are properly indexed and served to the right audiences without causing duplicate content issues.

Handling pagination for international sites involves using rel=”next” and rel=”prev” tags, hreflang tags, and managing indexing to ensure that search engines understand the structure of your paginated content. Properly implementing these strategies helps avoid duplicate content issues, optimize regional search behavior, and improve SEO across multiple countries.