HomeBlogWhat Is Pagination In An Online Store And How To Optimize It
What Is Pagination In An Online Store And How To Optimize It
There are many sections and a wide range of products on marketplaces and online stores. To structure this information, there is pagination, the navigation element of the site. It is found in directories, blogs and divides, organizes information into pages. We will tell you more about pagination pages, share recommendations on what to do with them and how to optimize them.
What is pagination
When you enter a marketplace or an online store, you are offered a huge number of products. It is sometimes impossible to fit all products even in one category on one page. In this regard, the second, third, … n pages appear.
Dividing a large amount of data into pages is pagination. The term pagination comes from two words “page” and “navigation” . Thanks to it, pages load faster, and it becomes easier to work with information. For example, if there are a lot of products on the page, then it turns out to be heavy and takes a very long time to load. This has a negative impact on search engine rankings. And buyers will simply leave without waiting for the page to load. Too heavy pages may not be indexed at all and therefore will not appear in search results.
Numeric pagination. The most common, online stores and marketplaces in most cases use it.
Numeric pagination example
Through the “Show more” button. In this format, there is no way to go through several sections, the products will be loaded sequentially by clicking on the button.
Example of pagination through the "Show more" button
Endless tape. Products will automatically load in real time when the user reaches the end of the page. It is believed that infinite scrolling allows you to keep the attention of visitors longer.
Often you can find combined approaches to pagination. For example, a numbered list and an endless tape. In this case, the visitor can choose how it is more convenient for him to view the goods.
Why pagination needs to be optimized
Optimized pagination affects the ranking factors of a site in search engines and can increase positions in search results. In order for a product from the 10th page to get into the search results, it is important that search robots do not perceive all ten pages of one product section as the same.
What can happen if pagination pages are not optimized or optimized incorrectly?
Pages will not appear in search results. Reason: appearance of duplicate pages. If the content on the pages starts to match (including meta tags, headings), then search engines will perceive such pages as duplicates and simply throw them out of indexing.
Users will not be taken to the main page, but to a random one from the list. Reason: misconfigured relevant page or rel canonical. Users will not get to the main page from the search, but to the 4th or any other.
You publish new pages, but they all do not appear in the search. Reason: The crawl budget has been used up. A search engine can crawl a certain number of pages at a time. And in order to bypass all the pages of the site, she needs more time, as a result, the necessary pages will be slower to get into the search results.
Pages do not appear or are poorly indexed. Reason: all pagination pages are closed from indexing in robots.txt. Robots do not visit these pages and do not display them in search results.
To avoid all these problems, it is important to optimize each pagination page. We share our recommendations below.
How to optimize pagination pages for stores
1. Each page must be indexed.
They cannot be closed from indexing in robots.txt. If it will be closed, the robot will not index products from these pages. Consequently, the site owner loses product traffic when the buyer is looking for a specific product model.
2. Set up a relevant page.
So that a relevant page is displayed in search engines, i.e. main for a section or directory, you need to set up a tag with the rel=”canonical” attribute. There are differences here, depending on the search engine.
Google requires you to specify the current page in canonical. In the Cart-Power blog example, the Canonical tag should contain the page https://cart-power.ru/blog/page/4/
Relevant page optimization for Google
Yandex – the 1st page of the section should be indicated in the Canonical tag of all pagination pages, as it is implemented in the Cart-Power.ru blog
Relevant page optimization for Yandex
3. Individual meta tags and titles for each pagination page.
Meta tags and H1 headers should not be duplicated throughout the site. Pagination pages are no exception. To avoid duplication, in the formulas for generating Title, Description and H1, on pagination pages, add the number of the current page to the very end.
For example: <title>Buy Jackets for Kids: at {Store Name} — Page 2</title> <description>Buy Jackets for Kids at {Store Name} with free worldwide shipping. Call {phone number} – Page 2</description>
In the case when the current h1 is used in the generation of the title and description, then the page number does not need to be additionally put down, because page number will be taken from h1.
For example: Section “Jackets for children”. The heading h1 of the first page of the section is “Jackets for children”. Next, we add a page, we get: “Jackets for children – Page 2”. Thus, substituting the title h1 in the title, we get: <title>Jackets for children – Page 2: in the store {Shop name}</title>
How else to optimize the same type of pages
There can be a lot of pagination pages on marketplaces, they all look the same. There can be many similar pages of the same type on the site. Optimizing them requires a lot of effort and monotonous work. Below are life hacks on how to optimize such pages so as not to waste a lot of time:
1. Individual meta tags and titles for the product pages.
Each product page must have unique meta tags: title, description, h1 to avoid duplication. Even if you have two similar products, with a slight difference, such as color or equipment. These differences should be specified in the meta tags.
Example: Iphone 14 512GB black Iphone 14 512GB white
More details about meta tags and how to make attractive product pages for search engines are described in the article “Perfect Product Page: SEO”
2. Micro-markup for product pages.
In the search results, the page is displayed as a snippet, a small announcement of what is on the page. The attractiveness of the snippet directly affects page traffic.
Snippets are the announcement of your site in search results
The announcement may include:
Image;
Rating;
Price, etc.
Snippets are generated by the search robot based on what is posted on the page. In order for robots to take the necessary information for product cards, use the Product markup of the Schema.org standard. It will help you create compelling snippets.
For CS-Cart, Shema.org markup is implemented for product cards by default.
3. Universal formulas for basic optimization.
The formulas for generating titles and meta tags for sites are all unique and are formed taking into account some features of the store. But you can create universal formulas that are suitable for basic website optimization before starting SEO work.
For example: Listing of goods Title: {H1} buy in an online store at a price of {min. price in category} with delivery | {Store name} Description: {category name} buy from {store name} online store at a bargain price from {minimum price in category}. ⭐ Large selection of goods. 👍 Delivery nationwide. ☎ {phone number}
Product page Title: {Product name} buy at the price {product price} {currency} in the online store with delivery | {Store name} Description: {Product name} buy at the price {product price} {currency} ⭐ Delivery throughout the United States. 👍 Favorable conditions. ☎ {phone number}
4. Breadcrumbs
All pages on the site, except for the main page, must contain breadcrumbs. The last paragraph of the breadcrumbs should repeat the h1 of the current page and be non-clickable.
An example of breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs must contain the full path from the main page to the current page. They also need to be structured with Shema.org markup.
Conclusions
Pagination is a site navigation element for structuring and organizing products by pages. It makes pages load faster.
Pagination pages are pages of the same type that must be open for indexing and be with unique meta tags. So products from all pages will fall into the search results.
Optimizing such pages is a monotonous but rewarding task. To optimize pages of the same type, use formulas and templates to reduce labor costs.
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What Is Pagination In An Online Store And How To Optimize It
There are many sections and a wide range of products on marketplaces and online stores. To structure this information, there is pagination, the navigation element of the site. It is found in directories, blogs and divides, organizes information into pages. We will tell you more about pagination pages, share recommendations on what to do with them and how to optimize them.
What is pagination
When you enter a marketplace or an online store, you are offered a huge number of products. It is sometimes impossible to fit all products even in one category on one page. In this regard, the second, third, … n pages appear.
Dividing a large amount of data into pages is pagination. The term pagination comes from two words “page” and “navigation” .
Thanks to it, pages load faster, and it becomes easier to work with information. For example, if there are a lot of products on the page, then it turns out to be heavy and takes a very long time to load. This has a negative impact on search engine rankings. And buyers will simply leave without waiting for the page to load. Too heavy pages may not be indexed at all and therefore will not appear in search results.
Pagination can be of various types:
Often you can find combined approaches to pagination. For example, a numbered list and an endless tape. In this case, the visitor can choose how it is more convenient for him to view the goods.
Why pagination needs to be optimized
Optimized pagination affects the ranking factors of a site in search engines and can increase positions in search results. In order for a product from the 10th page to get into the search results, it is important that search robots do not perceive all ten pages of one product section as the same.
What can happen if pagination pages are not optimized or optimized incorrectly?
To avoid all these problems, it is important to optimize each pagination page. We share our recommendations below.
How to optimize pagination pages for stores
1. Each page must be indexed.
They cannot be closed from indexing in robots.txt. If it will be closed, the robot will not index products from these pages. Consequently, the site owner loses product traffic when the buyer is looking for a specific product model.
2. Set up a relevant page.
So that a relevant page is displayed in search engines, i.e. main for a section or directory, you need to set up a tag with the rel=”canonical” attribute.
There are differences here, depending on the search engine.
3. Individual meta tags and titles for each pagination page.
Meta tags and H1 headers should not be duplicated throughout the site. Pagination pages are no exception.
To avoid duplication, in the formulas for generating Title, Description and H1, on pagination pages, add the number of the current page to the very end.
For example:
<title>Buy Jackets for Kids: at {Store Name} — Page 2</title>
<description>Buy Jackets for Kids at {Store Name} with free worldwide shipping. Call {phone number} – Page 2</description>
In the case when the current h1 is used in the generation of the title and description, then the page number does not need to be additionally put down, because page number will be taken from h1.
For example:
Section “Jackets for children”. The heading h1 of the first page of the section is “Jackets for children”. Next, we add a page, we get: “Jackets for children – Page 2”.
Thus, substituting the title h1 in the title, we get:
<title>Jackets for children – Page 2: in the store {Shop name}</title>
How else to optimize the same type of pages
There can be a lot of pagination pages on marketplaces, they all look the same. There can be many similar pages of the same type on the site. Optimizing them requires a lot of effort and monotonous work. Below are life hacks on how to optimize such pages so as not to waste a lot of time:
1. Individual meta tags and titles for the product pages.
Each product page must have unique meta tags: title, description, h1 to avoid duplication. Even if you have two similar products, with a slight difference, such as color or equipment. These differences should be specified in the meta tags.
Example:
Iphone 14 512GB black
Iphone 14 512GB white
More details about meta tags and how to make attractive product pages for search engines are described in the article “Perfect Product Page: SEO”
2. Micro-markup for product pages.
In the search results, the page is displayed as a snippet, a small announcement of what is on the page. The attractiveness of the snippet directly affects page traffic.
The announcement may include:
Snippets are generated by the search robot based on what is posted on the page. In order for robots to take the necessary information for product cards, use the Product markup of the Schema.org standard. It will help you create compelling snippets.
For CS-Cart, Shema.org markup is implemented for product cards by default.
3. Universal formulas for basic optimization.
The formulas for generating titles and meta tags for sites are all unique and are formed taking into account some features of the store. But you can create universal formulas that are suitable for basic website optimization before starting SEO work.
For example:
Listing of goods
Title: {H1} buy in an online store at a price of {min. price in category} with delivery | {Store name}
Description: {category name} buy from {store name} online store at a bargain price from {minimum price in category}. ⭐ Large selection of goods. 👍 Delivery nationwide. ☎ {phone number}
Product page
Title: {Product name} buy at the price {product price} {currency} in the online store with delivery | {Store name}
Description: {Product name} buy at the price {product price} {currency} ⭐ Delivery throughout the United States. 👍 Favorable conditions. ☎ {phone number}
4. Breadcrumbs
All pages on the site, except for the main page, must contain breadcrumbs. The last paragraph of the breadcrumbs should repeat the h1 of the current page and be non-clickable.
Breadcrumbs must contain the full path from the main page to the current page. They also need to be structured with Shema.org markup.
Conclusions
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