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To paginate a category page, show a manageable slice of its items at a time and provide links to the other pages. On Shopify, wrap the collection’s product loop in Liquid’s paginate tag. For search discovery, give each page a distinct URL, link pages with ordinary crawlable links, and use a self-referential canonical URL on each page.
Choose a pattern for the listing
Pagination is one way to handle a long category listing; load-more controls and infinite scroll are alternatives. The right choice depends on list size, user orientation, and whether each state has a URL that search crawlers can reach. Google’s guidance compares the trade-offs: pagination and incremental page loading.
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| Pattern | Useful when | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Pagination | The list is large, users benefit from knowing their position, or each segment needs a crawlable URL. | Users navigate between pages and the listing is split across page loads. |
| Load more | You want to add items without a full page change and the list is not extremely large. | It can be less suitable for very large lists; if loading requires a user-triggered JavaScript action, provide another crawl path for search engines. |
| Infinite scroll | A continuous feed suits the browsing experience. | It can obscure how much content remains, cause scrolling fatigue, and be difficult to use for very large lists. |
Incremental loading can improve initial page speed, reduce network traffic—particularly on mobile—and reduce the data retrieved by the backend, but those are potential benefits, not guaranteed results for every implementation.
Set a page size and make navigation clear
There is no universal best number of items per page established by the cited guidance. Choose a size that makes product cards easy to scan without requiring excessive page changes. Consider card weight, network conditions, and what your audience needs; validate the choice on your own category pages rather than treating an example value as a rule.
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Show understandable navigation, such as numbered links and previous/next controls. Where it helps users orient themselves, indicate the current page or position. Ensure each navigation link leads to the intended segment, not merely a visual state that changes after a click.
Paginate a Shopify collection with Liquid
Shopify documents collection.products as an array that can be paginated. Put the product loop inside the paginate block, then render navigation from the paginate object or use the default_pagination filter:
{% paginate collection.products by 24 %}
{% for product in collection.products %}
{% endfor %}
{{ paginate | default_pagination }}
{% endpaginate %}The 24 here is only an example. Shopify’s Liquid paginate tag documentation specifies a page-size range of 1–250. The tag can reach the 25,000th item; if a collection has more items, filter the array before paginating. The Shopify collection theme guidance also recommends paginating collection products so they remain accessible.
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Make each page discoverable to search engines
- Give every page a distinct URL. A query parameter such as
?page=2is one example. Do not identify pages only with URL fragments: Google ignores fragment identifiers for pagination. - Link pages sequentially with standard links. Use HTML
<a href>links between pages so crawlers can discover later segments. Google generally finds URLs in links and generally does not activate controls that require a user-triggered JavaScript action. - Canonicalize each page to itself. Use a self-referential canonical URL for every page in the sequence. Do not point every later page’s canonical tag to page one.
- Plan crawl access for JavaScript loading. If a load-more or infinite-scroll interface does not expose ordinary links to subsequent items, provide an appropriate discovery path, such as crawlable links, a sitemap, or a Google Merchant Center feed.
These recommendations follow Google’s pagination and incremental page loading guidance.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Decide how filters and sorting affect URLs
Filters and alternate sort orders can create many URL variations of the same category. Decide which variants should be crawled or indexed before exposing large combinations of parameters. For unwanted URL patterns, Google identifies noindex or robots.txt as possible controls; choose deliberately based on whether you want those pages excluded from search results, crawling, or both, and test the effect on your site’s discovery needs.
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Check the finished category page
- Only the intended number of items appears on each page, and the next page contains the next segment.
- Navigation works in both directions where applicable and identifies the current position clearly.
- Every segment has a distinct, stable URL and links to adjacent pages with ordinary links.
- Each paginated URL has its own self-referential canonical rather than canonicalizing to the first page.
- Filter and sort URL variants follow the crawl and indexing policy you intended.
- On Shopify, the page size is within the documented 1–250 range and the collection is within the paginate tag’s reach, or is filtered before pagination.
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