Google pagination guidance
Google pagination and infinite scroll,
as documented
How Google says its crawler finds paginated and incrementally loaded content, and the practices it lists, in its own words. Verified from Google's page on 2026-10-07.
Splitting a long list into pages, a load more button or infinite scroll can make a site faster for users, but Google says you may need to take action to ensure its crawler can find all your site content. This page lists what Google's pagination guide says, with quotes taken from Google's page.
What Google says about pagination and incremental loading
| Topic | What Google says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Why load partial results | “you may need to take action to ensure the Google crawler can find all your site content.”Google: showing a subset of results can improve page performance, for example for category pages, blog post lists, product reviews and blog comments. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| UX patterns | “To display a subset of a larger list, you can choose between different UX patterns”Google names three: pagination (next, previous and page numbers), load more buttons, and infinite scroll. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| Pagination trade-offs | “Gives users insight into result size and current position”Google's listed cons: more complex controls, content split across multiple pages, and viewing more requires new page loads. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| Load more trade-offs | “Can't handle very large numbers of results as all of the results are included on a single web page”Google's listed pros: it uses a single page for all content and can inform users of the total result size near the button. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| Infinite scroll trade-offs | “Can lead to "scrolling fatigue" because of unclear result size”Google's listed pros: a single page for all content, and the user just keeps scrolling. It also lists that it cannot handle very large numbers of results. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| JavaScript implementations | “"Load more" functionalities and infinite scroll are generally implemented using JavaScript.”Google: pagination can be implemented with links to new pages, or with JavaScript updating the current page. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| How Googlebot finds URLs | “Google generally crawls URLs found in the href attribute of <a> elements.”Google: if your site uses JavaScript, follow its JavaScript SEO best practices. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| No clicking | “Google's crawlers don't "click" buttons and generally don't trigger JavaScript functions that require user actions to update the current page contents.”This is why Google says to make sure the crawler can find your content however you load it. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| Sitemaps and feeds | “consider using a sitemap file or a Google Merchant Center feed to help Google find all of the products on your site.”Google adds this to the advice on making sure links are crawlable. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| Link pages sequentially | “include links from each page to the following page using <a href> tags.”Google: this can help Googlebot find subsequent pages. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| Link back to the first page | “consider linking from all individual pages in a collection back to the first page of the collection”Google: this can hint that the first page might be a better landing page than other pages in the collection. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| Titles and descriptions | “pages in a paginated sequence don't need to follow this recommendation.”Google: you can use the same titles and descriptions for all pages in the sequence, and it tries to recognize pages in a sequence and index them accordingly. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| Unique URLs | “Give each page a unique URL.”Google's example: include a ?page=n query parameter, as URLs in a paginated sequence are treated as separate pages. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| Canonicals | “Don't use the first page of a paginated sequence as the canonical page.”Google: instead, give each page its own canonical URL. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| URL fragments | “Don't use URL fragment identifiers (the text after a # in a URL) for page numbers in a collection.”Google: it ignores fragment identifiers, and if a next-page URL differs only after the #, Googlebot may not follow the link, thinking it has already retrieved the page. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| Preloading | “Consider using preload, preconnect, or prefetch to optimize the performance for a user moving to the next page.”A performance suggestion in Google's list of URL practices. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| rel=next and rel=prev | “Google no longer uses these tags, although these links may still be used by other search engines.”Google: it used to use link rel="next" and rel="prev" to identify next and previous page relationships. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
| Filters and sort orders | “To avoid indexing variations of the same list of results, block unwanted URLs from being indexed with the noindex robots meta tag or discourage crawling of particular URL patterns with a robots.txt file.”Google's example: ?order=price returning the same list ordered by price. | Google docs Verified 2026-10-07 |
How to apply it
A checklist built only from the practices in Google's guide.
- Choose the pattern (pagination, load more or infinite scroll) using the trade-offs above, then check the Google crawler can still find all your content.
- Link each page to the next with an a element and an href, and consider linking every page back to the first page.
- Give every page in the sequence its own URL, such as ?page=n, and its own canonical URL rather than pointing to page one.
- Do not use a # fragment for page numbers.
- Do not rely on rel=next and rel=prev for Google; they are not used by it.
- For filter and sort variations, use the noindex robots meta tag or a robots.txt pattern to keep unwanted URLs out.
- For load more or infinite scroll, follow the JavaScript SEO best practices, and consider a sitemap or Merchant Center feed.
Questions
Does Google still use rel=next and rel=prev?
No. Google says it used these tags in the past to identify next and previous page relationships, but no longer uses them, although other search engines may still use them.
Should page 2 canonicalize to page 1?
Google says not to use the first page of a paginated sequence as the canonical page. Instead, give each page its own canonical URL.
Can I use #page=2 in my paginated URLs?
Google says not to use URL fragment identifiers for page numbers. It ignores fragment identifiers, and may not follow a next-page link that differs only after the #.
Do paginated pages need unique titles?
Google says pages in a paginated sequence do not need distinct titles. You can use the same titles and descriptions for all pages in the sequence.
Will Google click my load more button?
Google says its crawlers do not click buttons and generally do not trigger JavaScript functions that require user actions. It generally crawls URLs found in the href attribute of a elements.
How do I stop filtered or sorted lists being indexed?
Google suggests blocking unwanted URLs from being indexed with the noindex robots meta tag, or discouraging crawling of particular URL patterns with a robots.txt file.
How current is this page?
Every quote was read from Google's page on 2026-10-07, which showed "Last updated 2025-12-10 UTC". Google can change its documentation, so treat the linked page as the final word.
Sources
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