A long news archive needs a path to older pages. A “load more” button can improve the experience, but it should not be the only way to reach content if the next items exist only after client-side code runs.

Give each page a real URL

  • Render pagination controls as anchors with stable destinations, such as /news/page/2/.
  • Keep a sensible next and previous path, and make each archive page useful when opened directly.
  • Do not create endless, nearly identical URLs from arbitrary filters or sort orders.
<nav aria-label="News pages">
  <a href="/news/">1</a>
  <a href="/news/page/2/">2</a>
  <a href="/news/page/2/">Next page</a>
</nav>

Keep the first page useful

The archive landing page should link clearly to recent stories, while older content remains reachable through a finite sequence of pages or topic indexes. Avoid relying on deprecated pagination hints as a substitute for crawlable links.

Test the rendered HTML with scripts disabled and follow the links from the archive. Every article you intend to publish should have a discoverable path and a stable canonical URL.