A Load more control can be pleasant for people yet hide the only path to later items behind an interaction. When commissioning a catalogue, ask for reachable page URLs alongside the interaction. This concerns the sequential path to distinct items, not creating indexable copies of every filter combination.
Who should use this acceptance brief
Large product catalogues and portfolio directories. Use this as a scoped commissioning task for a website supplier. Where system evidence is required, a teaching file is not a substitute.
Source-bound platform fact
Google recommends distinct paginated URLs, crawlable links and self-canonicals for the sequence rather than canonicalising every page to page one. It generally does not click buttons to reveal content. Google: pagination · Checked 16 October 2026.
Filled teaching example
Synthetic example, not a client case. Inputs, expected decisions and counterexamples follow; no live platform integration is claimed.
On narrow screens, scroll to read the complete table.
| Input / case | Check basis | Expected decision |
|---|---|---|
| ?page=2 with anchor href | unique page | discoverable route candidate |
| #page=2 only | same document fragment | not a distinct crawl path |
| button only, no href | interaction required | add accessible route |
Run the acceptance exercise
- List which product IDs belong on pages one, two and three.
- Fetch each URL directly, inspect item coverage and compare the next-link destinations.
- Test the progressive interaction separately, including returning from an item detail page.
Interpret the result and retain evidence
The fixture rejects fragment-only and non-link navigation. A valid href is only a candidate until its response actually contains the next items. Keep a small item-ID coverage sheet; page two returning page-one products is a failure even if the URL and canonical are different.
Limits before implementation
No guarantee of crawling or indexing; no authority to recanonicalise existing pages. Filter crawl-budget decisions remain a separate brief.
Replay the finite example
Save both files in one folder and run with Node22.13 or newer. These finite checks are not a live service or certification. Filled inputs and expected outputs · Inspectable functions
node decision-check.mjs catalogue-pagination-links.json