SEO for Pagination, Faceted Navigation & Canonicalization - Hits and Misses

SMX Advanced 2012

>Adam Audette>twitter.com/audette

A few SEO Clients

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1. Pagination dos and don’ts

2. SEO for Faceted Navigations

3. Some rel canonical gotchas

Pagination, Facets, Canonicalization, oh my!

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Pagination

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http://www.zales.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3045659&kpc=1&pg=2

http://www.zales.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3045659

site:zales.com inurl:pg=2 intitle:Diamond Engagement Rings - Find Engagement Diamonds, Engagement Jewelry, an Engagement Diamond Ring and more from Zales.

Over 100 duplicate results

Noindex Pagination Method

pp. 2

• Hi-top fade

pp. 3

• Bel-Air

pp. 4

• One-strap overall

p. 1

Fresh Prince

(pages noindex, follow)

Noindex Pagination Requirements

pp. 2-N

Annotations:

• pages 2-N annotated with noindex, follow

• pages 2-N self-referencing rel canonical

• pages 2-N contain unique titles, URLs, and meta data

noindex, follow on pages

Rel prev/next Pagination Technique

pp. 2-N

Annotations:

• Pages 2-N annotated with rel next, prev

• pages 2-N self-referencing rel canonical

Noindex Pagination Method

p. 1

pp. 2-N

Rel prev/next Pagination Tactic

p. 1

pp. 2-N

[ rel prev / next ]

Conflicting signals with rel canonical & rel prev/next

With use of rel prev/next:

>Keep in mind Pages with rel next/prev can still be shown in results

But this is an extreme “edge case” Can optionally use noindex

Use of rel next/prev consolidates signals across the entire series

View All Pagination Requirements

Annotations:

• pages 2-N specify View All as rel canonical target

• View All page must load fast

• View All contains all data in the series

View All

pp. 2-N

Side Note: View Alls

>Challenges View All pages must be fast Big sites (esp. ecomm) sometimes dislike them … but users love them! (if they’re fast)

More cool methods!

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Googlebot gets the first ~500 words

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Recommendations

>When you have a great View All Add rel canonical targets to the View All on all component pages

in a series Ensure the View All contains all the data found on the component

pages Ensure the View All loads quickly

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Recommendations

>When View All isn’t an option Use the rel prev/next method to consolidate signals across the

series Advantage over noindex method Use self-referencing rel canonical

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Recommendations

>Two more options: Append parameters to the URL with a hash (#) Progressive rendering as user scrolls

Faceted Navigation

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http://www.jpcycles.com/motorcycle-brake-calipers-and-kits

http://www.jpcycles.com/motorcycle-brake-calipers-and-kits?N=36367

http://www.jpcycles.com/motorcycle-brake-calipers-and-kits?N=36367

http://www.jpcycles.com/motorcycle-parts/brembo/brake-calipers-and-kits

http://www.jpcycles.com/motorcycle-parts/brembo/brake-calipers-and-kits?N=36371+28004518

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Takeaways:

• Identify essential and overhead facets

• Always force the canonical path regardless of selection order

• Build URLs according to queries (how do your users search?)

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Downsides:

• Solves nothing for decreasing crawl overheads

• Labor intensive and error prone

Canonical Action!

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These are not the URLs you’re looking for.

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/590?nav=gnro-hp

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/590?nav=gnro-hp

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/51909?feat=590-GN1

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/51909?feat=590-GN1

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Takeaways:

• Use rel canonical to signal the preferred URL, not as a “shortcut”

• Internal link signals should be consistent

• Careful with self-referencing rel canonical tags

Thank you!

Adam Audette

aaudette@rimmkaufman.com

twitter.com/audette