Are your paginated pages set up correctly?
Paginated pages are easy to get wrong. Canonicalising page 2 to page 1 tells Google that page 2 does not exist, so the products or posts on it are never discovered through the sequence.
Reads the canonical and rel next/prev signals on a set of your pages. Saved to your account if you are signed in to a paid plan.
How this check works
Shipwork reads a set of your pages, identifies the paginated ones, and checks two signals: whether each paginated page canonicalises to itself (correct) or to a non-paginated URL (wrong), and whether it carries rel next/prev so crawlers can walk the sequence.
What the pagination SEO checker looks for
The pagination SEO checker looks for paginated URLs of the form ?page=2 or /page/2 among the pages it reads, the links on them, and any rel next or rel prev hints. It then inspects the canonical of each paginated page it actually fetched. If that canonical points to a version without a page number, it reports that the paginated page canonicalises to a non-paginated URL.
It also notes paginated pages that carry no rel next or rel prev. The free run reads a sample of up to 20 pages, and pagination is often absent from a sitemap, so the check also counts paginated links found on the home page as evidence that pagination is in use. Where no sampled page is itself paginated, it says the deeper checks could not run.
How to read a pagination finding
A pass means each paginated page the check read declared itself as its own canonical, which is the usual correct setup. A finding that page 2 canonicalises to page 1 is the classic mistake: it tells a search engine that page 2 is a duplicate of page 1, so the items listed only on page 2 may never be discovered through it.
A missing rel next or rel prev is reported as information, not an error. It is a hint that helps crawlers walk a sequence in order, and it is not a requirement. The check reads markup only, so it cannot confirm what a search engine ultimately indexed. Use it to catch the canonical error, not to certify a whole pagination system.
Common causes and why they matter
The wrong canonical usually comes from a theme or SEO add-on that applies one template rule to every listing page, including pages two and beyond. A store that canonicalises all collection pages to the first dumps the contents of later pages out of the index. Filtered and sorted views, which also look paginated, get caught by the same rule.
When page 2 and onward are treated as duplicates of page 1, products or articles that appear only deeper in the series lose their route into the index. The listing pages themselves also compete for one query instead of presenting a sequence. That is a discovery problem, and it can quietly cap how much of a large catalogue is found.
How to fix pagination signals
Each paginated page should point its canonical at itself, including the page number. Correct the template or the add-on that injects the canonical rather than editing a single page, then re-run the check. Keep rel next and rel prev if your platform already emits them; they make the sequence explicit for crawlers that read them.
Leave later pages out of the sitemap and list the first page instead, letting internal links lead a crawler through the series. If you use a store platform, check whether its listing template or an installed app is overriding the canonical, since that is the usual source of the error. Confirm the change on a live page two before assuming it is fixed.
When to use related checks
Use canonical check for canonical problems on other page types, and index signals when a URL in your sitemap is noindexed or canonicalised away. Both catch conflicts this pagination check does not.
The canonical tags guide explains how to choose the preferred URL for a set of versions. Pagination is one case of that decision; faceted navigation and tracking parameters are others, and each has a check that reads the signal it depends on.
Questions
Should page 2 canonicalise to page 1?
Do I need rel next/prev?
Should paginated pages be in the sitemap?
Does Google use rel next and rel prev?
How do I check pagination SEO on my site?
Why does my paginated page show as canonicalising to the first page?
Keep reading
What this reads
- Reads public pages from outside your network, the way a crawler does.
- No signup, and nothing is stored on the free checks.
- One of 83 checks across discovery, content, markup, trust and catalogue data.
Cool, just ran an audit and got some insights! Let’s see if I can fix them :)
Whoah! this site is crazy, nothing to roast at all
cool as heck, tried it on my blog and the insights it gave are helpful and not bluff.