In short. Google no longer uses rel=next and rel=prev for pagination; use sequential links between distinct URLs and give each page its own canonical URL.
Definition:
rel="next"andrel="prev"are HTML link relationships that point to the next and previous documents in a sequence. Google Search Central states that Google used these tags in the past and no longer uses them to identify next page and previous page relationships.
Key facts
- Google's pagination documentation says that Google no longer uses
rel="next"andrel="prev"tags, although other search engines may still use them. - The HTML Standard's sequential link types define
nextas a link to the next logical document in a sequence andprevas a link to the previous logical document. - The IANA Link Relations registry records
nextandprevas relations for a series and identifies HTML as their reference. - Google generally crawls URLs in the
hrefattribute of<a>elements and says its crawlers do not click buttons or generally trigger user actions that update page contents. - Google's guidance treats URLs in a paginated sequence as separate pages, recommends a unique URL for each page, and recommends a canonical URL for each page.
What do rel=next and rel=prev mean in HTML?
The HTML Standard's sequential link types define a sequence as documents that can have a previous sibling and a next sibling. Its next keyword creates a hyperlink to the next logical document in the sequence. Its prev keyword creates a hyperlink to the previous logical document. The keywords may be used with link, a, area, and form elements.
The IANA Link Relations registry gives the same relationship meanings: next indicates that the link context belongs to a series and that the next item is the link target, while prev identifies the previous item. These definitions describe the links' meaning on the web. They do not change Google's documented Search behavior.
What does Google use for a paginated series?
Google's pagination documentation was last updated 10 December 2025. It says that Google generally crawls URLs found in the href attribute of <a> elements. It also says that its crawlers do not click buttons and generally do not trigger JavaScript functions that require user actions to update the current page contents.
For paginated content, Google recommends links from each page to the following page using <a href> tags. The documentation says this can help Googlebot find subsequent pages. A matching link pattern is:
<a href="...">next page</a>
Google also recommends linking individual pages back to the first page of a collection. The documentation describes that link as a hint that the first page may be a better landing page than other pages in the collection. It says pages in a paginated sequence may share titles and descriptions, and that Google tries to recognize the pages in a sequence and index them accordingly.
What URL signals accompany the links?
Each page in the sequence needs a unique URL. Google's pagination guidance gives ?page=n as an example of a query parameter and says URLs in a paginated sequence are treated as separate pages. The same page should have its own canonical URL. Google's guidance says the first page should not serve as the canonical page for the full sequence.
Fragment identifiers do not provide the page number signal Google needs. Google says it ignores URL fragments. If a URL to a following page differs only after #, the documentation says Googlebot may treat it as already retrieved and may not follow the link.
The documented Google pattern is therefore sequential crawlable links between distinct URLs, with a canonical URL for each page. The older relationship markup remains meaningful as HTML and may be used by other search engines, but it is not the relationship signal Google documents for this purpose.
Related terms
FAQ
Should you add rel=next and rel=prev for Google Search?
You can use the relationships for their HTML meaning, but Google's pagination documentation says Google no longer uses these tags. For Google Search, use crawlable <a href> links between distinct page URLs.
Should every paginated page use the first page as its canonical URL?
No. Google recommends a unique canonical URL for each page and says not to use the first page as the canonical page for the sequence.
Can a URL fragment represent the next page?
No. Google's documentation says it ignores URL fragments and may not follow a link to a following page when the only difference is text after #.
Sources
- Google Search Central, "Pagination, incremental page loading, and their impact on Google Search", 10 December 2025
- WHATWG, "HTML Standard", 19 October 2026
- IANA, "Link Relations", 12 June 2026
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