Pagination and filters on directory sites

// Editorial team

A city page with 200 listings and five filters can turn into thousands of URLs. Most of them should not be indexed, but readers still need them.

Pagination

Give each page of results its own URL, such as ?page=2, with a self-referencing canonical tag. Do not canonicalise page 2 to page 1, since page 2 lists different items. Link pages with plain anchor links that work without JavaScript, so that crawlers can reach listings deep in the list.

Sorting

Sort orders do not change which items are listed, only the order. Keep sort parameters out of the index with a canonical to the default order.

Filters worth indexing

Some filter combinations match what people search for, such as IB schools in a given city. Give those a clean path and real content: an intro paragraph, the filtered list and links to related pages. Treat them as landing pages.

Filters not worth indexing

Combinations of three or four filters rarely match a search and often return the same few listings. Let readers use them, but mark them noindex and keep them out of the sitemap.

Empty results

A filter page with no results should say so and suggest a wider search. It should not be indexed.

Internal links

Link from listings back to their location and category pages, and from guides to the filtered pages that answer them. Directory pages that are only reachable through a search box are hard for anyone to find.