Pagination Loop (circular rel=next chain)

What This Means

Following the rel=next chain of paginated pages eventually leads back to a page already in the chain — creating a loop. For example: page 1 → page 2 → page 3 → page 1 (loop). Crawlers tracing the chain would cycle indefinitely.

Why It Matters for SEO

A circular pagination chain signals to crawlers that the series is infinite or malformed. Crawlers may follow only a few steps before stopping and missing pages in the series. The loop also inflates apparent page count and can confuse indexation of the series.

What the Platform Checks

The platform follows each rel=next chain until either a terminus is reached (no more rel=next) or a previously-visited URL is encountered. The check fires when a URL in the chain has been seen before — indicating a loop.

How to Fix It

• Identify the page in the chain whose rel=next incorrectly points back to an earlier page.
• The last page in the series should have no rel=next attribute (or the rel=next should be absent, not pointing back to page 1).
• Check CMS pagination templates for off-by-one errors that cause the last page's "next" to wrap around to the first page.
• After fixing, trace the chain manually from page 1 to confirm it terminates at the final page.