What is the rel="prev" and rel="next" tag, and how does it impact SEO?
1 answer
@chasity.halvorson
The rel="prev" and rel="next" tags are HTML attributes used for pagination on websites. These tags are employed to indicate the relationship between paginated pages and help search engines understand the structure of the content.
The rel="prev" tag is used on a page to specify the URL of the previous page in a series. Conversely, the rel="next" tag is used to specify the URL of the next page in a series. These tags are particularly beneficial for websites with long multi-page articles, blog posts, or category pages.
The impact of using rel="prev" and rel="next" tags on SEO is mainly focused on enhancing the user experience and improving crawlability for search engines. Search engines utilize these tags to comprehend the order and relationship between paginated pages. By doing so, search engines can consolidate ranking signals, prevent duplicate content issues, and provide users with more accurate and relevant search results.
Though using rel="prev" and rel="next" tags alone may not directly influence search rankings, they can indirectly impact SEO by improving crawlability, indexability, and website usability. This, in turn, can contribute to better user engagement, higher page rankings, and increased organic traffic.