Rel Next and Rel Prev for Ecommerce: The Complete 2026 Guide

Google introduced support for rel="next" and rel="prev" link elements in 2011. These HTML tags served as a signal to tell Google which pages formed a logical sequence. When Google found page 1 linked to page 2 via rel="next" and page 2 linked back to page 1 via...

The Brief History of Rel Next and Rel Prev

Google introduced support for rel="next" and rel="prev" link elements in 2011. These HTML tags served as a signal to tell Google which pages formed a logical sequence. When Google found page 1 linked to page 2 via rel="next" and page 2 linked back to page 1 via rel="prev", it would consolidate indexing signals across the paginated series. Google would typically index only the first page in the series and treat the rest as part of a paginated whole.

Google Deprecated the Feature in 2022

In March 2022, Google Search Central announced that rel="next" and rel="prev" would no longer be used as signals for pagination (Google Search Central, 2022). The stated reason was that Google's indexing systems had evolved to detect pagination automatically through URL patterns, internal linking structure, and site architecture. The link elements had become redundant.

This was a significant change. Sites that relied exclusively on rel next/prev to communicate pagination structure lost that signal overnight. Google expects site owners to use rel="canonical" and robots meta tags instead.

Should You Remove Rel Next and Rel Prev in 2026

The short answer: removal is optional but recommended for cleanup.

Leaving the tags in place causes no harm. Google ignores them. However, keeping deprecated markup is technical debt. Here is the reasoning for removal:

Bing and Yandex may still interpret the tags, creating inconsistent signals across search engines.
CMS templates accumulate conditional logic around these tags. Removing them simplifies the template.
Auditors and automated tools flag the tags as deprecated, creating noise in technical reports.

If your CMS generates them automatically with no maintenance cost, you can leave them. If you are building a new site or refactoring templates, omit them entirely.

What Replaced Rel Next and Rel Prev

Google uses three signals to understand pagination today:

Signal 1: Canonical Tags. Either self-canonical (each page points to itself with noindex,follow on page 2+) or view-all canonical (all pages point to a single view-all URL). This is the strongest pagination signal available.

Signal 2: Internal Link Structure. Googlebot crawls from page 1 to page 2 via the "next" button link. The anchor text, the link placement, and the URL pattern tell Google these pages form a series. Consistent URL query parameters (e.g. ?page=N) reinforce the pattern.

Signal 3: Breadcrumb Structured Data. BreadcrumbList schema markup on every paginated page tells Google the parent category and the page's position. This is especially useful for deep pagination chains.

Implementation Example: Rel Next/Prev Removal

Before (deprecated):

<link rel="prev" href="/category/?page=1">
<link rel="next" href="/category/?page=3">
<link rel="canonical" href="/category/?page=2">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow">

After (clean 2026 standard):

<link rel="canonical" href="/category/?page=2">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow">

Common Migration Issues

Removing rel next/prev and seeing traffic drops. Correlation is not causation. If traffic drops coincide with removal, investigate indexation changes (did Google re-crawl and re-index the paginated pages?) rather than the removal itself.

Conflicting signals with view-all pages. If you use a view-all canonical strategy, ensure no paginated page carries both a view-all canonical AND a rel next/prev tag pointing to itself. The canonical takes precedence, but the mix confuses crawlers.

Audit Checklist

Search your templates for rel="next" and rel="prev" in rendered HTML. Document every location.
Test whether your canonical tags are correct without the next/prev markup. Use Google's URL Inspection Tool on page 2+.
Verify that internal "next" and "previous" links are regular <a> tags, not JavaScript event handlers. Googlebot needs href attributes.
Confirm that removing rel next/prev does not break navigation for human users (it should not, since these are <link> elements in <head>).
Run a crawl with Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to confirm no paginated pages return errors after removal.

Sources

Google Search Central. "Learn about rel next and rel prev." Google Developers, 2022. https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/03/next-prev-deprecation
Google Search Central. "Indicating paginated content." Google Developers, 2024. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/pagination
Bing Webmaster Tools. "Pagination Signals." Microsoft, 2025. https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/pagination
Aleyda Solis. "Pagination techniques for ecommerce." Search Engine Land, 2025. https://searchengineland.com/ecommerce-pagination-techniques-seo

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