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Canonical VS Rel=Next & Rel=Prev for Paginated Pages
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I run an ecommerce site that paginates product pages within Categories/Sub-Categories. Currently, products are not displayed in multiple categories but this will most likely happen as time goes on (in Clearance and Manufacturer Categories). I am unclear as to the proper implementation of Canonical tags and Rel=Next & Rel=Prev tags on paginated pages. I do not have a View All page to use as the Canonical URL so that is not an option.
I want to avoid duplicate content issues down the road when products are displayed in multiple categories of the site and have Search Engines index paginated pages. My question is, should I use the Rel=Next & Rel=Prev tags on paginated pages as well as using Page One as the Canonical URL?
Also, should I implement the Canonical tag on pages that are not yet paginated (only one page)?
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Thanks Anthony. I have read Adam's article and after further research this was the direction I was leaning in. You have definitely helped me choose a direction.
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Pagination is a huge topic and a bit too much to get into here on the Q&A. Here are my brief answers and I hope they help.
- Don't worry about duplicate content if your category/subcategory pages only show snippets for the products they contain and you don't have two identical category/subcategories. Similar category/subcategories will have a certain level of overlap and that is fine.
I recommend adding a bit of unique content to each one. Make it useful to the visitor. Help them find what they are looking for and teach them a bit about this particular category. This unique content will help you make each page unique and also hopefully help you rank for long-tail kws and convert better.
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Don't worry about implementing the canonical tag unless you see that you are having problems with multiple versions of the same page being indexed. URLs with Tracking codes for example.
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Make each paginated page have a unique page title (Category - Page 2 - Brand) and then implement rel=next/prev.
Read everything you can on this subject from Adam Audette. He has some very good posts and slides on e-comm pagination.
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&rlz=&q=audette+pagination
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