SEOs frustrated by Google’s belated pagination announcement

Apparently, people don’t like being kept in the dark.

Chat with SearchBot

This week, SEOs learned that Google stopped supporting the rel=prev/next markup (that indicates a web page is part of a larger set of pages) within its indexing process years ago. Having factored rel=prev/next into their site design and investing time into maintaining those structures, site owners, web designers, and SEOs have some charged emotions about the lapsed announcement. 

Here’s how Google broke the news:

 

Just prior to that, Google’s John Mueller laid this detail on us:


Why you mad, though?
Notable SEOs like Alan Bleiweiss and Jenny Halasz are pushing back.

While Bleiweiss insists that Google needs reinforcing signals like link relationship tags to effectively index, Halasz points out that there are other search engines out there and (perhaps more importantly) that these tags may provide support for users who rely on technology such as screen readers to navigate.  


Others are highlighting the hypocrisy.


People aren’t just upset that Google stopped supporting these tags, they feel betrayed because they’ve invested resources into making this a part of their user interface on the belief that it’s a best practice.


And, of course, there are the memes.


Translation: the joke here is that the “hreflang” attribute (which tells Google which language a page uses) is next to get the axe. (It is just a joke.)

Why you should care. As search systems evolve, the ways they use or rely on markup changes, too. This won’t be the last subtraction or addition. Google apologized for the lapsed communication and expressed it would communicate markup changes when they happen going forward.

The reactions underscore that just because Google cuts support for something doesn’t mean it may not still be valuable for user experience or recognized by other platforms. Google apologized and maintains that webmasters should use it for reasons other than indexing. Just be sure to consider the broader impact the markup might have before deciding whether or not to stop using it themselves.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

George Nguyen
Contributor
George Nguyen is the Director of SEO Editorial at Wix, where he manages the Wix SEO Learning Hub. His career is focused on disseminating best practices and reducing misinformation in search. George formerly served as an editor for Search Engine Land, covering organic and paid search.

Get the must-read newsletter for search marketers.