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Why Pagination Matters for SEO Pagination plays a critical role in how both users and search engines navigate your content. In a blog or resource-heavy website built with Jekyll, improper pagination can lead to poor indexing, content duplication, and diminished SEO value. Challenges with Static Pagination Unlike dynamic CMS platforms that auto-generate paginated archives, Jekyll requires manual configuration. Without a well-thought-out strategy, paginated pages may become SEO dead ends or be ignored entirely by search engines. Basic Pagination Setup in Jekyll Jekyll has built-in pagination via the jekyll-paginate or jekyll-paginate-v2 plugin. Here’s the most basic setup: # _config.yml plugins: - jekyll-paginate paginate: 5 paginate_path: "/page:num/" Using the Paginator in Templates In your index layout: {% raw %} {% for post in paginator.posts %} <h3><a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.title }}</a></h3> {% endfor %} <d...

Why Tags Matter in a Static Blog Tags play a key role in helping users explore content on your site based on themes and topics. Unlike categories, which are broad, tags can offer granular navigation. In dynamic CMSs like WordPress, tag systems are built-in. In Jekyll, you need to build it manually — but with that comes flexibility and speed. The Benefit of Tag Archives Tag archives group posts under relevant keywords. Visitors can explore your blog by topics of interest, reducing bounce rates and increasing page views. It also helps with internal linking and crawlability by search engines. Setting Up Tags in Jekyll Posts Start by adding tags to your posts' front matter: --- title: "Top SEO Mistakes to Avoid" tags: [seo,optimization,beginner] --- Enable Tag Display in Post Templates Within your post.html layout, render the tags like this: {% raw %} <ul class="tags"> {% for tag in page.tags %} <li><a href="/tag/{{ tag | s...

Why Related Posts Matter Related posts help readers continue exploring your content. They're essential for improving time-on-site, reducing bounce rates, and increasing internal linking. While WordPress themes often include this feature by default, Jekyll users must implement it manually — especially if you're hosting on GitHub Pages where custom plugins are restricted. What Makes Posts Related In Jekyll, there’s no built-in content analysis for post similarity. However, you can relate posts by tags, categories, or custom front matter fields. This approach ensures relevance while keeping things fast and static. Approach 1: Related Posts by Tags The simplest and most dynamic way is by checking if other posts share tags with the current one. Here's how you can add this logic to your post layout. Sample Code in Your Post Layout {% raw %} <div class="related-posts"> <h3>Related Posts</h3> <ul> {% assign related_posts = site...