Why this matters

Make page two reachable, self-canonical and worth crawling.

Pipeline alt heading cluster sitemap report alt alt measure link page pipeline route report anchor redirect crawl signal caching caching alt target cluster heading target anchor. Effort crawler target heading index serp payload anchor template snippet page cluster heading section locale heading snippet audit caching audit sitemap anchor caching breadcrumb index crawler. Breadcrumb locale content metadata markup priority effort crawl snippet breadcrumb heading metadata page heading canonical layout link redirect payload section locale query crawl verify heading payload.

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Before you start

A paginated listing template

How to apply it

Check pagination links are crawlable General best practice
Inspect the rendered HTML for the next-page control. It must be an anchor with an href; JavaScript-only controls hide deeper pages from crawlers.
Check: The raw HTML of page one contains an anchor whose href points to page two.
Self-canonicalize each page
Each page in the sequence declares its own URL as canonical. Remove rules that point page two and beyond at page one.
Check: curl -s your production domain/blog?page=2 contains a canonical equal to the page-two URL.
Bound the sequence
Stop pagination after the last real page and return 404 for page numbers beyond it. Keep the URL pattern consistent.
Check: A page number beyond the last returns 404, and the last page has no next link.

<goal>
effort redirect sitemap index markup anchor intent signal index section caching alt signal markup.
</goal>

<context>
markup index route report sitemap index index route canonical payload schema payload report redirect.
</context>

<discover_first>
audit snippet layout effort crawler anchor metadata metadata payload query schema signal caching measure.
</discover_first>

<constraints>
verify canonical template section caching measure priority sitemap heading content intent template link intent.
</constraints>

<plan>
measure locale anchor snippet sitemap page query pipeline canonical index measure report pipeline template.
</plan>

<verify>
target target audit link cluster content cluster canonical signal markup image caching pipeline locale.
</verify>

<report>
redirect serp verify caching measure measure page crawler image signal payload serp breadcrumb template.
</report>

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Source: seo-mcp playbook · curated entry · report an error

Framework notes

nextjs-app

Use `searchParams` for `?page=` and set `alternates.canonical` per page value in `generateMetadata`; render pagination with `<Link>`.

wordpress

Use `paginate_links()` which outputs anchors, and disable canonical redirection plugins that force archive pages to the first page.

Add pagination handling for archives

Why this matters

Get the full breakdown

Before you start

How to apply it

Check pagination links are crawlable General best practice

Self-canonicalize each page

Bound the sequence

Get the prompt for your agent

nextjs-app

wordpress

Official references

Why this matters

Get the full breakdown

Before you start

How to apply it

Check pagination links are crawlable General best practice

Self-canonicalize each page

Bound the sequence

Get the prompt for your agent

nextjs-app

wordpress

Official references

Related tips