Lack of interest Resources threads rel="prev" for SEO

[Mr Lucky]

I may be wrong about this, but wouldn't it be best if a resources discussion was linked in the header to the Resource via rel="prev"

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/pagination-with-relnext-and-relprev.html

Currently the content is split across two pages:

1. Resource itself
2. Resource discussion thread

And although this is not duplicate content, the content of the topic (ie the resource and the comments) is split across two pages, so Google might see two weaker pages as opposed to one strong one.

It should work the same way as the existing thread pagination.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[pegasus]

I would not really say that "prev" is appropriate, since the resource is not technically page-1 of the discussion, more that the discussion is "about" the resource. Unfortunately there is no rel="about" or something like that, and rel="parent" seems to semantically refer to persons.

For one part of the relationship, rel="discussion" is proposed, and a few sites are already using it. For the reverse relationship, there is not really an appropriate rel value, but some microformats like schema.org suggest that something like itemprop="about" could be used, although some schemas are not so simple as adding a few attributes to an existing link. Search engines like Google use microdata like this to help them learn the page relationships on sites.

 

[Mr Lucky]

I understand what you are saying, but until there is something more appropriate, then I then previous and next for resources and discussion is the best, and most appropriate if not completely, we have. And for SEO I'm sure it's better than nothing.

Threads are paginated in xenforo by default with prev and next, and very often they consists of an article or blog like first post, followed by discussion or comments.