rel=next and rel=prev are link relations that mark a page as part of a series and point to the following and preceding page, for example in a paginated category. Google no longer uses these tags, so the term is historical.
What applies today?
Google’s pagination documentation says that it used the tags in the past to identify next and previous pages, no longer does, and that other search engines may still use them. The HTML Standard still defines the link types next and prev for pages that are part of a series, so the markup is valid; it simply has no effect in Google Search.
For paginated content, Google’s documentation points to ordinary mechanics. Each page gets its own URL, and pages are connected with regular <a href> links. Fragment identifiers (#) are not a reliable way to separate pages.
Example
<!-- On page 2 of a category -->
<link rel="prev" href="https://example.com/shoes?page=1">
<link rel="next" href="https://example.com/shoes?page=3">
The same pagination works for Google with only the visible links between the pages.
Common mistakes
- Treating the tags as a requirement for pagination in Google Search.
- Using them as a replacement for crawlable links between pages.
Sources
- Pagination and incremental page loading – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- HTML Standard, link types next and prev – WHATWGhtml.spec.whatwg.org
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