SEO for Pagination, Faceted Navigation & Canonicalization - Hits and Misses Deck from SMX Advanced 2012 panel with Vanessa Fox and Maile Ohye.

1. SMX Advanced 2012
> Adam Audette
> twitter.com/audette

2. A few SEO Clients

3. 1. Pagination dos and don’ts
2. SEO for Faceted Navigations
3. Some rel canonical gotchas
3

4. Pagination, Facets,
Canonicalization, oh my!
4

6. Pagination
6

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

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

11. Over 100 duplicate results

13. Noindex Pagination Method
p. 1
Fresh
Prince
pp. 2 pp. 3 pp. 4
• Hi-top • Bel-Air • One-
fade strap
overall
(pages noindex, follow)

14. Noindex Pagination Requirements
Annotations:
• pages 2-N annotated with noindex,
follow
pp. 2-N • pages 2-N self-referencing rel
canonical
• pages 2-N contain unique titles,
URLs, and meta data

17. noindex, follow on pages

18. Rel prev/next Pagination Technique
Annotations:
• Pages 2-N annotated with rel next,
prev
pp. 2-N • pages 2-N self-referencing rel
canonical

19. Noindex Pagination Method
p. 1
pp. 2-N

20. Rel prev/next Pagination Tactic
p. 1
pp. 2-N
[ rel prev / next ]

24. Conflicting signals with rel canonical &
rel prev/next

25. 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

26. View All Pagination Requirements
Annotations:
• pages 2-N specify View All as rel
View All canonical target
• View All page must load fast
• View All contains all data in the
series
pp. 2-N

27. 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)

28. More cool methods!
28

32. Googlebot gets the
first ~500 words

33. 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
33

34. 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
34

35. Recommendations
> Two more options:
 Append parameters to the URL with a hash (#)
 Progressive rendering as user scrolls
35

36. Faceted Navigation
36

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

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

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

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

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

42. 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?)
42

43. Downsides:
• Solves nothing for decreasing
crawl overheads
• Labor intensive and error prone
43

44. Canonical Action!
44

45. These are not the URLs you’re looking for.

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

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

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

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

54. 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 54

55. Thank you!
Adam Audette
aaudette@rimmkaufman.com
twitter.com/audette