Posts Per Page Setting - Do Things Break If I Update It?

TheBigK

TheBigK

Well-known member
We currently have the setting at 10 posts per page. I want to make it 20 posts per page. Wondering if that'd break anything on the forum, except for the pages that were at the end of the thread with more than 20 responses?

Two reasons I wish to do this -

1. Users will have to click less to read the responses.
2. It offers more content per page to search engines [possible SEO boost]

Thoughts?
 
Hmm, I've done that a couple time - increased it - with no problems at all. It's just really a db query change....
 
Well, it could cause a bit of an issue with Google.

Google indexes the canonical URL with the page number included for threads.

It should adjust pretty quickly, but you may find that searchers are getting search results for the content they need being listed on Page 2, but you've increased your posts per page so the content they want won't any longer be on that page.

The same applies for any users who have made posts saying "Check out my post on page 2". Their post probably won't be on page 2 anymore.

So it's not end of the world stuff. It won't break anything. But there is an impact.
 
Thank you everyone for your responses. My big concern is - is there any impact on the SEO? Will it cause the 404s for the last page numbers (which won't exist after I increase the posts/page count)?
 
That's totally awesome! Does the same happen with the second last page? That is, earlier my thread has 60 posts distributed in 6 pages. The new structure will make it only 3 pages. The page number 6 will 307 redirect to page number 3. But what about page number 5?

Major Question: Do you think it will have a positive impact on SEO?
 
Page number 5 will redirect also to the last page. So it will redirect to page number 3.

About SEO: I'm not sure.
 
TheBigK said:
That's totally awesome! Does the same happen with the second last page? That is, earlier my thread has 60 posts distributed in 6 pages. The new structure will make it only 3 pages. The page number 6 will 307 redirect to page number 3. But what about page number 5?

Major Question: Do you think it will have a positive impact on SEO?
Click to expand...
Every page higher than the last page on the thread will redirect to that last page.
Page 100 -> page 3,
Page 4 -> page 3

I'm not sure if a permanent redirect would be better for SEO, given that it'll be permanently redirected to that new link, but that's probably a new suggestion thread because I'm not too familiar with SEO.
 
Okay, that solves one problem. Wondering if this would be a good move for a forum that's been around for some time and has all the pages indexed. I do want Google to reindex our entire forum once again. But by increasing posts/page, we'll be offering more content to the Google spiders on every page.

Has anyone changed posts/page on an established forum before? How was your experience?
 
TheBigK said:
Thank you everyone for your responses. My big concern is - is there any impact on the SEO? Will it cause the 404s for the last page numbers (which won't exist after I increase the posts/page count)?
Click to expand...

If I were you, and considering your recent experiences with making changes that force Google to do something extra to properly index you, I'd hold off :)
 
melbo said:
If I were you, and considering your recent experiences with making changes that force Google to do something extra to properly index you, I'd hold off :)
Click to expand...
Maybe that seems to be a wise thing to do. Thank you for your response. I appreciate it.
 
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