Tutorial: How to Remove link rel='prev' and link rel='next' from WordPress Head

Welcome to RGV Digital Marketing's tutorial on removing link rel='prev' and link rel='next' tags from the WordPress head. As a leading provider of internet marketing services in Edinburg, TX, RGV Digital Marketing understands the importance of optimizing your website's SEO to achieve better search rankings on Google.

Understanding link rel='prev' and link rel='next' in WordPress

In WordPress, the link rel='prev' and link rel='next' tags are used to indicate the relationship between paginated content. These tags are added to the head section of WordPress themes and are valuable for websites with long articles or blog posts divided into multiple pages. While these tags can be beneficial for navigation within a paginated series, they may not always be necessary or desirable for every website.

However, having these tags in your website's head can sometimes lead to undesirable SEO consequences. Search engines may interpret them as signals to crawl and index every page in the series, potentially diluting the page authority and ranking potential of each individual page. Therefore, it is important to consider whether or not you actually need these tags based on your website's structure and content.

Removing link rel='prev' and link rel='next' from WordPress head

To remove the link rel='prev' and link rel='next' tags from your WordPress site's head, you can follow these simple steps:

1. Access your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the Appearance section.
2. Click on Editor to access the code editor for your currently active theme.
3. Locate the section within your theme's header.php file.
4. Look for the code that includes the link rel='prev' and link rel='next' tags.
5. Delete or comment out this code to remove the tags. Make sure to always backup your files before making any changes.
6. Save the changes and refresh your website to see the updated head section without the tags.

Remember to double-check the changes you made to ensure that you haven't unintentionally removed any other important code from your theme's header.php file. Having a backup or using a child theme is always recommended to avoid any potential issues during the editing process.

Benefits of removing link rel='prev' and link rel='next'

There are several benefits to removing link rel='prev' and link rel='next' tags from your WordPress head:

• Improved crawl budget allocation: By removing these tags, search engines will focus on crawling and indexing individual pages of your website, which can help optimize your crawl budget.
• Enhanced page authority: Without the dilution caused by paginated content, each page can accumulate more page authority, potentially leading to higher search rankings.
• Better user experience: Simplifying the head section can result in faster page loading times and a more streamlined user experience.
• Greater control over indexing: Removing these tags allows you to decide which pages are indexed by search engines, preventing duplicate or unnecessary indexing.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have explored the process of removing link rel='prev' and link rel='next' tags from the WordPress head. By following these steps, you can take control of how search engines crawl and index your website, potentially improving your SEO performance. RGV Digital Marketing, a trusted provider of internet marketing services in Edinburg, TX, is here to help you optimize your website for better search rankings and increased visibility. Contact us today to learn more!