Think about it: for an e-commerce site with thousands of products or a news site with endless articles, having no pagination strategy could overwhelm users and Googlebot alike. Well-structured pagination ensures your most important pages get crawled, and your site's architecture remains clean.

From an SEO perspective, properly handling pagination can:

• Ensure equitable link equity (SEO juice) flows through your site.
• Prevent duplicate content issues by signaling canonical versions of pages.
• Improve user experience by making content more digestible, which can reduce bounce rates and increase dwell time.

Implementing Pagination with Next.js

Pagination in Next.js can be handled dynamically, using either client-side or server-side approaches. Here’s a basic setup for server-side pagination with Next.js:

Step 1: Dynamic Routing for Paginated Pages

First, set up dynamic routing. Create a [page].js file in your pages folder to handle pagination logic.

import { useRouter } from 'next/router';

function PaginatedPage({ data }) {
  const router = useRouter();
  const { page } = router.query;

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Page {page}</h1>
      {data.map(item => (
        <p key={item.id}>{item.title}</p>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
}

export async function getServerSideProps({ params }) {
  const page = params.page || 1;
  const res = await fetch(`https://api.example.com/items?page=${page}`);
  const data = await res.json();

  return { props: { data } };
}

export default PaginatedPage;

Step 2: Creating Pagination Links

Once you have the page data, create pagination links using simple anchor tags or Next.js Link components.

import Link from 'next/link';

function Pagination({ currentPage }) {
  const nextPage = parseInt(currentPage) + 1;
  const prevPage = currentPage > 1 ? currentPage - 1 : null;

  return (
    <div>
      {prevPage && (
        <Link href={`/page/${prevPage}`}>
          <a>Previous</a>
        </Link>
      )}
      <Link href={`/page/${nextPage}`}>
        <a>Next</a>
      </Link>
    </div>
  );
}

Step 3: SEO-Friendly Pagination

It's important to consider both user and bot experience. Make sure to:

• Limit the number of pages displayed in the navigation to avoid overwhelming users.
• Implement lazy loading for content that’s further down the page.

Avoiding Pagination-Related Issues (Duplicate Content, Improper Indexing)

Duplicate Content

One major issue that arises with pagination is duplicate content. This occurs when Googlebot crawls paginated pages that are nearly identical or have only minor differences. Duplicate content can dilute your page’s relevance and cause cannibalization in search results.

To avoid this:

• Ensure each paginated page contains unique content, or at least differentiate it enough so that it stands out to search engines.
• Use canonical tags to signal to Google which page is the “main” version and should be indexed.

Improper Indexing

Sometimes Google can crawl and index paginated pages in the wrong order or miss important pages. To fix this, ensure that you:

• Use correct URL structures that clearly indicate pagination, such as site.com/blog/page/2.
• Provide a clear sitemap that includes pagination links.

Using Canonical Tags and rel="next"/rel="prev" Attributes for Paginated Content

One of the best ways to avoid pagination-related SEO issues is by implementing canonical tags and rel="next"/"prev" attributes. Here's how they help:

Canonical Tags

A canonical tag tells Google which version of a page is the main one to be indexed. When you have multiple paginated pages, the canonical tag should point to the main category page (usually page 1) to avoid duplication.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/blog/page/1" />

rel="next" and rel="prev"

These attributes help search engines understand that certain pages are part of a paginated series. By using them, you can instruct Google to follow the sequence of pages without treating them as standalone, unrelated content.

<link rel="next" href="https://example.com/blog/page/2" />
<link rel="prev" href="https://example.com/blog/page/1" />

In Next.js, you can implement these attributes dynamically based on the current page:

import Head from 'next/head';

function PaginationHead({ prevPage, nextPage }) {
  return (
    <Head>
      {prevPage && <link rel="prev" href={`https://example.com/blog/page/${prevPage}`} />}
      {nextPage && <link rel="next" href={`https://example.com/blog/page/${nextPage}`} />}
    </Head>
  );
}

Testing and Optimizing Pagination for SEO Performance

Once you've set up pagination, you’ll need to test it for SEO performance. Google’s Rich Results Test and Mobile-Friendly Test can help identify issues with how paginated content is being indexed. Additionally, keep an eye on:

• Google Search Console: Check the coverage and index status of paginated pages.
• Page Speed Insights: Ensure pagination doesn’t slow down page load times, which can affect ranking.

If you notice pages dropping out of the index or not ranking well, consider tweaking the pagination structure or improving content uniqueness.

Advanced Techniques: Infinite Scroll vs. Traditional Pagination

Infinite Scroll

Infinite scroll loads new content as the user scrolls down the page, without the need to click through pagination links. While it's a great user experience (especially on mobile), it can cause issues with SEO, because search engines may not be able to crawl all the content that loads dynamically.

In Next.js, you can implement infinite scroll using React hooks to fetch new content as the user scrolls:

import { useEffect, useState } from 'react';

function InfiniteScroll() {
  const [data, setData] = useState([]);
  const [page, setPage] = useState(1);

  useEffect(() => {
    fetchMoreData();
  }, [page]);

  function fetchMoreData() {
    fetch(`/api/items?page=${page}`)
      .then((res) => res.json())
      .then((newData) => {
        setData((prevData) => [...prevData, ...newData]);
      });
  }

  return (
    <div>
      {data.map(item => <p key={item.id}>{item.title}</p>)}
      <button onClick={() => setPage(page + 1)}>Load More</button>
    </div>
  );
}

Traditional Pagination

Traditional pagination, on the other hand, provides clear URLs and a structured path for Googlebot to follow. It’s the safest option when it comes to SEO, as long as you properly implement the rel="next" and rel="prev" tags.

While infinite scroll offers a more seamless experience for users, traditional pagination provides better SEO transparency and allows for more controlled crawling.

Conclusion

SEO-friendly pagination is essential for large programmatic Next.js sites. Whether you choose traditional pagination or infinite scroll, focus on making sure your content is easily crawlable, properly indexed, and free from duplicate content issues. Use canonical tags and rel="next"/"prev" attributes to guide search engines, and regularly test and optimize your setup to ensure you're getting the best SEO performance.