Happy Friday folx - we're ranting about pagination.
We're going to break down the problem pagination was supposed to fix, the problems it ended up creating, and why I want to kill it with fire. Something #passageindexing
What'd you expect? It's a rant.
We're going to break down the problem pagination was supposed to fix, the problems it ended up creating, and why I want to kill it with fire. Something #passageindexing
What'd you expect? It's a rant.
https://twitter.com/victorpan/status/1318611254085373954?s=20
In the beginning of the internetz, websites were pretty simple.
webdesignmuseum.org/web-design-his…
And fun. And wacky. And evolving. More people started connecting to the internet, own websites, publish content, sell stuff online (who would trust that?!), and much more.
2/n
webdesignmuseum.org/web-design-his…
And fun. And wacky. And evolving. More people started connecting to the internet, own websites, publish content, sell stuff online (who would trust that?!), and much more.
2/n
Then there were at least three problems:
- Folx created more content, it was no longer feasible to put it all in one URL
- People broke up their content into chunks for better user experience or ad monetization
- Inventory-driven websites were confusing search engines
3/n
- Folx created more content, it was no longer feasible to put it all in one URL
- People broke up their content into chunks for better user experience or ad monetization
- Inventory-driven websites were confusing search engines
3/n
There's plenty of examples that were given in 2011 -> webmasters.googleblog.com/2011/09/pagina…
- Blog posts that went from 10 to 10,000 pages
- Clickbait listicle you created with pages of slides and ads on each page
- The 1,000 SKUs you have on your web store
Pagination to the rescue
4/n
- Blog posts that went from 10 to 10,000 pages
- Clickbait listicle you created with pages of slides and ads on each page
- The 1,000 SKUs you have on your web store
Pagination to the rescue
4/n
In theory, search engines would now treat the content and ranking signals as one document for a paginated series. Backlinks to the group are consolidated.
In theory this was beautiful. Search engines would tell users "oh this stuff is so long but it's on page 3, go there"
5/n
In theory this was beautiful. Search engines would tell users "oh this stuff is so long but it's on page 3, go there"
5/n
But remember - pagination was a strong hint. People got it wrong sometimes. Search engines would get it wrong. Heck search engines give up finding the full series really often.
I honestly can't think of a time where I felt "oh page 2 would have better results"
6/n
I honestly can't think of a time where I felt "oh page 2 would have better results"
6/n
When you mix hreflang, canonicals, faceted nav, and pagination together what do you get?
A lot of SEO fun that's really common. (mobile-only websites, AMP, or dynamic rendering = more fun)
We have some tools. Sitemaps, robots, parameter handling
support.google.com/webmasters/ans…
7/n
A lot of SEO fun that's really common. (mobile-only websites, AMP, or dynamic rendering = more fun)
We have some tools. Sitemaps, robots, parameter handling
support.google.com/webmasters/ans…
7/n
Search engines can get canonicalization/pagination wrong. I'm for one thankful that they're admitting snafus -
Hm. Why the hell do we bother with pagination?
8/n
https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/1311805474992320512- whereas most of the time you feel like you're operating a black box ML algorithm.
Hm. Why the hell do we bother with pagination?
8/n
Bottlenecks have changed.
Internet speeds used to be the bottleneck for complex web experiences (hi friends who owned a 28kb modem).
Google only being able access 100kb of information per page mattcutts.com/blog/how-many-…
Sitemaps can now be up to 50MB vs 10MB
9/n
Internet speeds used to be the bottleneck for complex web experiences (hi friends who owned a 28kb modem).
Google only being able access 100kb of information per page mattcutts.com/blog/how-many-…
Sitemaps can now be up to 50MB vs 10MB
9/n
So whenever I have the chance to kill pagination in an increasingly complex web build, I do. Pagination is a horrible way to solve for orphaned pages.
You don't add paginations to sitemaps.
Search engines only use it for discovery now. seroundtable.com/how-bing-uses-…
And users?
10/n
You don't add paginations to sitemaps.
Search engines only use it for discovery now. seroundtable.com/how-bing-uses-…
And users?
10/n
Depending on the content format, users either love it or hate pagination. Remember infinite scrolling/parallax scrolling? With lazy loading and speed improvements, scanning and scrolling web content isn't painful... until speed becomes an issue.
11/n
11/n
Rel prev/next have been outgrown by the problems it was meant to solve. Featured snippets are better able to highlight excerpts in long-form content and the soon to come "Passage Indexing" is basically the follow-up shot to its death.
Pagination needs to die.
12/n
Pagination needs to die.
12/n
You want to fix orphaned pages? Add page features to templates that encourage deeper, relevant linking to the user's needs. Or heck, fix your faceted nav issues.
Yes I'm quoting myself.
13/n
https://twitter.com/victorpan/status/1318635443932585991
Yes I'm quoting myself.
13/n
You want to fix wasted crawl budget, a swath of low quality user-generated content, and crawled but not indexed pages?
Kill pagination, curate and highlight good UGC (helpful vs not), and organize things instead of hiding that mess.
14/n
Kill pagination, curate and highlight good UGC (helpful vs not), and organize things instead of hiding that mess.
14/n
I'm not saying "hey remove rel next prev"
What I am saying is listing everything is outdated and broken. Rethink the user experience and create URLs for problems.
A review that says "This is awesome?!" Filtered.
Pre-populated features people can vote on? Smart.
15/n
What I am saying is listing everything is outdated and broken. Rethink the user experience and create URLs for problems.
A review that says "This is awesome?!" Filtered.
Pre-populated features people can vote on? Smart.
15/n
There’s a time and place for everything.
There’s no time or place for pagination. Prune away useless pagination.
Let the action happen on the URL with most context.
No more lists without context.
Create content formats that are worth revisiting by themselves.
16/end
There’s no time or place for pagination. Prune away useless pagination.
Let the action happen on the URL with most context.
No more lists without context.
Create content formats that are worth revisiting by themselves.
16/end
Hope ya’ll stay safe and sound:
https://twitter.com/victorpan/status/1317135616409260033
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