How to split long WordPress posts into pages without affecting SEO

When I started blogging, I didn't follow any SEO or optimisation rules or anything else. I just posted and that was it. This caused me to accumulate thousands of unoptimised images and hundreds of long, very long articles.

Then I continued to publish other long articles that I optimised just enough. So, to date, there are about 100 articles with more than 1500 words, several dozens with more than 3500 words. And many others of more than 1000 words.

Quite a few of these texts are what is known as"evergreen" or timeless articles. As they are more complete texts than the typical quick post, they are usually the links that rank better and receive more constant organic traffic. That's the good news, the bad news is that they were also the posts that loaded the worst and that gave bad metrics because Google processes URL's by groups.

And this had to be fixed, for many reasons.

Why split long posts?

The main reason why it is advisable to divide long posts into pages is to lighten the load, especially those that have many images and/or videos and other elements.

Beyond the necessary improvement in loading speed, it will increase the chances of achieving a better positioning, or at least maintaining it, and will increase the time spent by visitors and the number of pages visited per session by reducing the bounce rate.

However, there are a few things to keep in mind. Keep the original URL so as not to create new URLs that can dilute the SEO and that Google, and other browsers, will continue to index the content as a single article.

The most important thing is to use rel="next" and rel="prev" in the to indicate to Google that it is a series.

For example, in a post divided into three pages, when visiting the second page, you will have to find this in the source code inside the tag

<link rel="canonical" href="https://jrmora.com/post-ejemplo/2/" />
<link rel="prev" href="https://jrmora.com/post-ejemplo/" />
<link rel="next" href="https://jrmora.com/post-ejemplo/3/" />

Some considerations

It is not enough to simply split articles or just to get more page views. The pagination must have a certain logic based on natural navigation. For this you must put yourself in the visitor's shoes or browse your site as if it were someone else's website.

Each sub-page should be able to function as a stand-alone page or at least be preceded by information about what you will find on it and a logical introduction to the new sub-page. It must have enough content to be considered poor or of little value. Google penalises"content thin".

The pagination should clearly indicate that the article is divided into pages. It is also not a bad thing to add, at least on the first page, a table of contents.

Although there is no "official" rule, avoid excessive pagination. It is generally advisable to divide posts of 1500/1800 words or more into two or three pages maximum.

Split post with Gutenberg's native page break block

There are different ways to do this with plugins, but, as you know, I favour using as few plugins as possible.

Gutenberg's"Page Break" block is the best option.

The block adds rel="next" and rel="prev" and "canonical" tags to the split pages, but if you want to make sure they are displayed, you can include this function in the functions.php file of your template.

// Añadir etiquetas rel="next" y rel="prev" para paginación con Bloque Page Break <!--nextpage--> o Salto de Página
function gp_add_pagination_rel_tags() {
    if (is_singular() && !is_front_page()) {
        global $page, $numpages, $post;
        
        // Solo si hay paginación
        if ($numpages > 1) {
            // Etiqueta rel="prev" (página anterior)
            if ($page > 1) {
                echo '<link rel="prev" href="' . get_permalink($post) . ($page - 1) . '/" />' . "\n";
            }
            
            // Etiqueta rel="next" (página siguiente)
            if ($page < $numpages) {
                echo '<link rel="next" href="' . get_permalink($post) . ($page + 1) . '/" />' . "\n";
            }
        }
    }
}
add_action('wp_head', 'gp_add_pagination_rel_tags');

Design matters

The appearance and elements of the pagination are very important because they will allow the visitor to immediately understand that the article continues on the following pages and to know how many pages it consists of.

2- The "Page Break" block shows a very basic layout. It looks like this:

And what we are looking for is something more descriptive and visually appealing.

The first image is what will be shown at the bottom of the first page and the second on the following pages.

This look is achieved with the CSS that is included in the total code that you can add to your functions.php. You can layout it however you like and it fits your blog's colour palette and design.

Code

Here is the code I am using now.

*It is adapted to my needs, you can separate the CSS and modify it, add or remove languages and change the text.

Although the code is intended to find the languages used by Polylang, it will still work if you don't use Polylang. However, it will only detect languages if the URL has this structure: tusitio.com/en/

// 1. Eliminar paginaciones automáticas
function remove_all_auto_pagination() {
    if (function_exists('generate_do_post_pagination')) {
        remove_action('generate_after_entry_content', 'generate_do_post_pagination');
    }
    add_filter('wp_link_pages', '__return_empty_string');
}
add_action('wp', 'remove_all_auto_pagination', 5);

// 2. Función auxiliar para números de página
function generate_pagination_numbers($total_pages, $current_page, $base_url) {
    $numbers_html = '';
    for ($i = 1; $i <= $total_pages; $i++) {
        $page_url = ($i == 1) ? $base_url : $base_url . user_trailingslashit($i);
        
        if ($i == $current_page) {
            $numbers_html .= '<span class="current-page">' . $i . '</span>';
        } else {
            $numbers_html .= '<a href="' . esc_url($page_url) . '" class="pagination-link">' . $i . '</a>';
        }
    }
    return $numbers_html;
}

// 3. Paginación multilingüe completa
add_filter('the_content', function($content) {
    global $numpages, $post;
    
    if (!is_singular() || $numpages <= 1) return $content;
    
    $wp_query = $GLOBALS['wp_query'];
    $current_page = $wp_query->get('page') ?: 1;
    $base_url = trailingslashit(get_permalink());
    
    // Sistema de detección de idioma
    $language = 'en';
    $available_langs = ['en','fr','de','es','pt','ru','it','sv','da','fi','nb','el','ar','tr','zh','id','ja','ko','uk','pl','cs','sk','lt','et','ro','hu','nl','bg'];
    
    if (function_exists('pll_current_language')) {
        $detected_lang = pll_current_language();
        $language = in_array($detected_lang, $available_langs) ? $detected_lang : 'en';
    } else {
        $current_uri = esc_url_raw($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
        foreach ($available_langs as $lang) {
            if (strpos($current_uri, '/'.$lang.'/') !== false) {
                $language = $lang;
                break;
            }
        }
    }
    
    // Textos completos para 28 idiomas (solo cambios en finlandés y ruso)
    $localized_texts = [
        'en' => ['Continue reading this post →', 'Pages of this post →'],
        'fr' => ['Continuer à lire cet article →', 'Pages de ce billet →'],
        'de' => ['Diesen Beitrag weiter lesen →', 'Seiten dieses Beitrags →'],
        'es' => ['Seguir leyendo este post →', 'Páginas de este post →'],
        'pt' => ['Continuar a ler esta publicación →', 'Páginas deste post →'],
        'ru' => ['Продолжить чтение →', 'Страницы этого поста →'],
        'it' => ['Continua a leggere questo post →', 'Pagine di questo post →'],
        'sv' => ['Fortsätt läsa detta inlägg →', 'Sidor i detta inlägg →'],
        'da' => ['Læs videre på dette indlæg →', 'Sider i dette indlæg →'],
        'fi' => ['Jatka lukemista →', 'Artikkelin sivut →'],
        'nb' => ['Fortsett å lese denne artikkelen →', 'Artikkelens sider →'],
        'el' => ['Συνεχίστε την ανάγνωση →', 'Σελίδες άρθρου →'],
        'ar' => ['تابع القراءة ←', 'صفحات المقال ←'],
        'tr' => ['Okumaya devam edin →', 'Yazı sayfaları →'],
        'zh' => ['继续阅读 →', '文章分页 →'],
        'id' => ['Lanjutkan membaca →', 'Halaman artikel →'],
        'ja' => ['続きを読む →', 'ページ移動 →'],
        'ko' => ['더 보기 →', 'ページ →'],
        'uk' => ['Читати далі →', 'Сторінки статті →'],
        'pl' => ['Czytaj dalej →', 'Strony artykułu →'],
        'cs' => ['Pokračovat ve čtení →', 'Stránky článku →'],
        'sk' => ['Pokračovať v čítaní →', 'Stránky článku →'],
        'lt' => ['Skaityti toliau →', 'Straipsnio puslapiai →'],
        'et' => ['Jätka lugemist →', 'Artikli leheküljed →'],
        'ro' => ['Continuă lectura →', 'Paginile articolului →'],
        'hu' => ['Tovább olvasom →', 'Cikk oldalai →'],
        'nl' => ['Lees verder →', 'Artikelpagina\'s →'],
        'bg' => ['Прочети още →', 'Страници на статията →']
    ];
    
    $text_index = ($current_page == 1) ? 0 : 1;
    $pagination_text = $localized_texts[$language][$text_index] ?? $localized_texts['en'][$text_index];
    
    // Construcción de la paginación
    $pagination_html = '<div class="custom-pagination-container">';
    $pagination_html .= '<div class="pagination-content">';
    $pagination_html .= '<span class="pagination-text">' . esc_html($pagination_text) . '</span>';
    $pagination_html .= '<div class="pagination-numbers">';
    $pagination_html .= generate_pagination_numbers($numpages, $current_page, $base_url);
    $pagination_html .= '</div></div></div>';
    
    return ($current_page > 1) ? $pagination_html . $content . $pagination_html : $content . $pagination_html;
}, 15);

// 4. CSS optimizado (sin referencias a fuentes)
add_action('wp_head', function() {
    echo '<style>
    /* Estilos base */
    .custom-pagination-container {
        margin: 25px 0;
        padding: 15px 10px;
        background: #f9f9f9;
        border-top: 1px solid #eee;
        border-bottom: 1px solid #eee;
        box-sizing: border-box;
        width: 100%;
    }

    .pagination-content {
        display: flex;
        align-items: center;
        justify-content: center;
        max-width: 800px;
        margin: 0 auto;
    }

    .pagination-text {
        font-weight: 700;
        color: #333;
        margin-right: 10px;
        white-space: nowrap;
    }

    .pagination-numbers {
        display: inline-block;
    }

    .pagination-link,
    .current-page {
        display: inline-block;
        padding: 8px 12px;
        margin: 0 3px;
        border-radius: 4px;
        font-weight: 400;
        font-size: 15px;
        line-height: 1;
        box-sizing: border-box;
        transition: all 0.2s ease;
    }

    .current-page {
        background: #b40006;
        color: white;
        font-weight: 700;
    }

    .pagination-link {
        background: #f5f5f5;
        color: #333;
        text-decoration: none;
    }

    .pagination-link:hover {
        background-color: #e0e0e0;
        transform: translateY(-2px);
        box-shadow: 0 2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
    }

    /* Estilos móvil */
    @media (max-width: 600px) {
        .pagination-content {
            flex-direction: row;
            flex-wrap: nowrap;
            overflow-x: auto;
            justify-content: flex-start;
            padding-bottom: 5px;
            -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch;
        }
        
        .pagination-text {
            font-size: 14px;
            white-space: nowrap;
            flex-shrink: 0;
        }
        
        .pagination-numbers {
            display: flex;
            flex-wrap: nowrap;
            gap: 4px;
        }
        
        .pagination-link,
        .current-page {
            padding: 6px 10px;
            min-width: 32px;
            font-size: 14px;
            margin: 0;
            flex-shrink: 0;
        }
    }
    </style>';
});