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§ 2.2.5 ARTICLE
Published VerifiedEvery 6 weeks Sources4 named Authored bySquareRank Team

Indexing · § 2.2.5 · How-to

Pagination on Squarespace blogs and stores

Squarespace blogs paginate at a configurable per-page post count, usually 7 by default3. Pagination URLs look like /blog?offset=.... Google retired rel=prev and rel=next as indexing signals in March 20192 and now handles pagination implicitly — each paginated page is treated as its own URL with its own self-referencing canonical. The owner action is short: keep the per-page count reasonable (10-15), accept that paginated archives compete weakly with deep individual post URLs, and don't try to revive rel=prev/rel=next because Google does not use them.

This leaf covers how Squarespace paginates (blog and store), what the rel=prev/rel=next deprecation actually means, the per-page count setting, and the common issues that surface on paginated archives.

How Squarespace paginates blogs and stores

Squarespace blog templates display a configurable number of posts per page on the blog landing page — default 7, adjustable in the template's style settings. Pagination URLs use the ?offset= query parameter: yoursite.com/blog?offset=1683072000000 for the second page, third page, etc. Each paginated page lists a different set of posts from the same blog. Store pages work similarly: the collection page (the product list) paginates at the platform's product-page-count default, with /collection-slug?page=2 style URLs depending on template.

The technical detail: paginated URLs are technically distinct URLs in Google's view, with their own meta tags, their own canonical tag pointing at themselves, and their own indexability. Squarespace does not exclude paginated URLs from the sitemap; they are indexable by default. Each paginated page has different post or product content, so Google treats them as related-but-distinct — not duplicates.

The rel=prev/rel=next deprecation, decoded

Between 2011 and 2019, the recommended pattern for paginated content was to add <link rel='prev'> and <link rel='next'> tags in the head of each paginated page, signalling to Google that the pages were a series. In March 2019, Google's John Mueller announced on Twitter that the rel=prev/rel=next signal was no longer used for indexing. Google's pagination documentation now describes a 'handle pagination as separate URLs' approach: each paginated page stands alone, indexed independently if it has unique content.

The implication for Squarespace owners1: don't try to install rel=prev/rel=next tags via Code Injection. The signal is dead. Squarespace's default behaviour (paginated URLs with self-referencing canonicals, no rel=prev/rel=next) is correct for the 2026 landscape.

The per-page post count setting

The default Squarespace blog post count per page varies slightly by template — 7 on most 7.1 blog templates, 5 on a few older ones. The setting is in the blog page's design tab (Site Styles for the blog template). Adjustable to any number from 1 to a reasonable upper bound (50 is typical). The trade-off: higher counts mean fewer paginated pages (less crawl-budget thrash) but heavier per-page loads (slower LCP). The sweet spot for SEO is 10-15.

A blog with 200 posts and a 10-per-page count produces 20 paginated archive URLs. A blog with 200 posts and a 5-per-page count produces 40 paginated URLs. Google has to crawl all of them periodically — the higher count is friendlier to crawl budget. The cost: each paginated page loads more content, more images, more thumbnails, which affects Core Web Vitals on the archive itself.

What the pagination setting actually affects

10-15

the SEO sweet spot for per-page post count — balances paginated URL count and per-page load.

Squarespace Help · 2026
2019-03

when Google retired rel=prev/rel=next as indexing signals.

Google · 2019-03-21
Each

paginated page is treated by Google as a separate URL with its own self-referencing canonical.

Google Search Central · 2025-12-10

Blog pagination vs store pagination on Squarespace

Blog pagination uses ?offset= parameters with a timestamp; store pagination uses ?page= parameters with sequential page numbers. The difference matters for one reason: ?page= URLs are predictable (page=1, page=2, etc.), making them easier to crawl and easier to spot in Search Console. ?offset= URLs are timestamp-based, less human-readable, and harder to filter in Search Console. Both work, both are indexed by Google, both should be reasonably configured.

A field-tested pattern for Commerce stores4: keep the per-page product count moderate (24-36 products per page is a typical Commerce sweet spot), ensure the category page has a unique introduction at the top (not just a list of products), and accept that paginated category pages will compete weakly with individual product pages for ranking. The category page is for discovery; the product page is for conversion.

Common pagination issues on Squarespace

Three issues show up regularly. (1) Paginated pages outrank the canonical landing page in Search Console — usually because the landing page has thin content and the paginated pages have more keyword diversity. Fix by improving the landing page's introduction. (2) Search Console shows 'Duplicate, Google chose different canonical' on paginated URLs — Google sometimes consolidates similar paginated pages. Usually safe to leave alone. (3) Pagination URLs in the sitemap inflate the URL count — they're real URLs and belong in the sitemap, not a bug to fix.

A fourth issue specific to large blogs: pagination crawl budget. A blog with 1,000+ posts and an aggressive per-page count (3-5) produces hundreds of paginated archive URLs. Google's crawl budget allocates a finite number of requests per day to your site, and pagination URLs can eat into the budget meant for individual post pages. The fix on very large blogs: raise the per-page count to 20-30, and (optionally) noindex paginated pages beyond page 2 or 3 if they're producing no organic traffic.

Set the blog per-page post count to 10-15 in Site Styles. Set the store per-page product count to 24-36. Do not install rel=prev/rel=next via Code Injection. Do not block paginated URLs in robots.txt. Do not noindex page 2+ unless you've confirmed they're generating zero organic traffic and you have 200+ posts where pagination crawl budget is a real concern. Let Google handle pagination implicitly. Accept that paginated archives are secondary to individual post and product URLs.

The honest framing: pagination is a low-priority SEO topic on most Squarespace sites. A site with under 100 blog posts can leave pagination defaults entirely alone and lose nothing. The optimisations in this leaf apply at 500+ posts or 1,000+ products, where crawl-budget effects become measurable. Below those thresholds, focus on individual page quality instead.

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