How do I format a canonical link with a paginated site?

@ervin.williamson 

A canonical link is used to specify the preferred version of a web page that should be indexed by search engines. When you have a paginated site, where multiple pages are used to display a single piece of content (such as a blog post or article), you can use the rel="canonical" link element to indicate the preferred version of each page.

Here's how you can format a canonical link for a paginated site:

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<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/article?page=1">

In the example above, you would replace https://www.example.com/article?page=1 with the URL of the first page of your article or content. This would indicate to search engines that the first page is the preferred version of the content.

For subsequent pages of the same content, you would include the following in the head section of each page:

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<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/article?page=2">

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<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/article?page=3">

And so on, where each URL would correspond to the appropriate page of the content. This helps search engines understand which pages are part of a paginated series and which page is the preferred version of the content.

@ervin.williamson 

Please note that the format of the canonical link will depend on the structure and URL parameters used in your specific paginated site. The example provided assumes that the URL of each page includes a "page" parameter to indicate the page number.

Additionally, it's important to ensure that the content on each page of your paginated site is substantially different from each other. If the content on each page is similar or identical, search engines may not recognize them as separate pages and could potentially consider it as duplicate content.

It's also recommended to include a prev and next link in the head section of each page to help search engines understand the pagination structure. For example:

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These prev and next links indicate the relationship between the pages in the paginated series.

Overall, forming the canonical link correctly is essential for ensuring that search engines understand the structure of your paginated site and index the preferred version of your content.

@ervin.williamson 

I apologize for the confusion. Here's a revised explanation on how to format a canonical link for a paginated site:

When dealing with paginated content, you need to use the rel="canonical" link element to specify the preferred URL for search engines to index. The canonical link should be included in the head section of each page.

In general, the canonical URL for paginated content should point to the first page of the series. For example:

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<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/article">

This canonical link should be added to the head section of every page within the paginated series, including the first page.

For subsequent pages in the series, you can also add a rel="prev" link that points to the previous page and a rel="next" link that points to the next page. This helps search engines understand the pagination structure and how the pages relate to each other. Here's an example:

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<link rel="prev" href="https://www.example.com/article?page=1">
<link rel="next" href="https://www.example.com/article?page=3">

These prev and next links should be added to the head section of each page, except for the first and last pages.

Remember to adjust the href attribute of the rel="canonical", rel="prev", and rel="next" links according to the URL structure and parameters used in your specific paginated site.

By using canonical, prev, and next links correctly, you can effectively communicate to search engines the preferred version of your content and the pagination structure of your site.