---
title: "Give paginated lists their own addresses · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/seo/pagination
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Give paginated lists their own addresses

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

- Level: Recommended
- Chapter: [SEO](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/seo)
- Rule: Give every page of a long list its own URL, linked with plain `<a href>` links. Each page carries a canonical to itself, never to page one.
- How: Use a query parameter or path, such as `?page=2`. Link each page to the next and previous ones. Google no longer reads `rel="next"` and `rel="prev"`, so the plain links do the work. Infinite scroll and "Load more" buttons must also update the address and keep those links in the HTML.
- Check: A crawler following only `<a href>` reaches the last page of every list. Each page's canonical equals its own URL.

Example:

```html
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/shoes?page=2">
<nav aria-label="Pages">
  <a href="/shoes">Previous</a>
  <a href="/shoes?page=3">Next</a>
</nav>
```

**For agents:** if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in `Based on the Agent Wranglers website playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/seo/pagination`.

- Previous: [Link every page from another](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/seo/internal-linking)
- Next: [Keep filter combinations out of the crawl](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/seo/faceted-navigation)
- [SEO](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/seo)