Use canonicals on paginated pages
SkillSearchPagination is a skill for AI agents that use web browsing or search tools. It guides the agent through auditing paginated content such as blog archives, product category pages, and search results, so multi-page listings get checked page by page instead of only the first one.
Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.
No other account needed.
Have an AI agent set up with web browsing or search capability.
Then ask your AI: use the Use canonicals on paginated pages skill
What your AI can do with it
- Audit blog archives split across multiple pages
- Review product category pages in full
- Work through search result pages systematically
- Apply to any site with lists or grids of content split across pages
Getting started
- Have an AI agent set up with web browsing or search capability.
- Add the pagination skill to the agent's available skills.
- Ask the agent to audit a paginated listing, such as a blog archive, category page, or set of search results.
What this skill tells your AI
The instructions your AI receives, as published by thedaviddias/front-end-checklist in skills/pagination/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.
Incorrect pagination canonicalization can prevent pages 2, 3, etc. from being indexed, removing valuable content from search results and breaking user journeys from search queries that match content on later pages.
Quick Reference
- Each paginated page (/page/2, /page/3) should self-canonicalize to its own URL
- Do NOT canonicalize all paginated pages to page 1 — this is a common mistake
- Google dropped support for rel=prev/next in 2019 — don't rely on it
- Use consistent URL patterns for pagination (?page=2 or /page/2, never both)
- Infinite scroll and load-more UIs still need crawlable paginated URLs or links
Check
Find paginated page sequences (URLs with ?page=, /page/, /p/, or numbered suffixes). For each page, check the canonical tag. Verify that each page self-canonicalizes (page 2 canonical-url = page 2 URL). Flag any paginated page that incorrectly points canonical-url to page 1. If the UI uses infinite scroll or "load more", verify equivalent crawlable pagination links exist.
Fix
Update canonical tags so each paginated page self-references. For /category?page=2, set . Remove any canonical pointing paginated pages to the first page unless those pages genuinely have duplicate content. Add crawlable paginated URLs or fallback links for infinite-scroll interfaces.
Explain
Pagination canonical tags tell Google which URL is the preferred version of each page. Setting all paginated pages to canonical-url to page 1 tells Google that pages 2, 3, etc. are duplicates of page 1 — so Google stops indexing them. Content that only appears on page 3 (for example) then becomes unreachable from search.
Code Review
Identify paginated URL patterns (URLs with page=, /page/, /p/ parameters). For each paginated page beyond page 1, check the canonical tag. Flag any page 2+ that has a canonical pointing to page 1 (the base URL). Verify that page 1 has a self-referencing canonical. Check that pagination URL format is consistent (no mixing of ?page= and /page/). For JS-driven infinite scroll, verify there is still a crawlable path to page 2+ via real links or paginated URLs.
For full implementation details, code examples, and framework-specific guidance,
see references/rule.md.
Rule page: https://frontendchecklist.io/en/rules/seo/pagination
Signals
- GitHub stars
- 74k
- Forks
- 7k
- Last commit
- Aug 2026
Questions
- When should this skill be used?
- Use it when auditing paginated content such as blog archives, product category pages, or search results.
- Does it work on any site?
- It applies to any site with lists or grids of content split across multiple pages.
- What does the agent do differently with this skill?
- It works through multi-page listings page by page instead of stopping at the first page.
Advanced
- Item type
- skill
- Key
pagination-thedaviddias- Source
- github.com/thedaviddias/front-end-checklist