<b>Page 2+ of paginated series indexes at 19%</b>

<b>Page 2+ of paginated series indexes at 19%</b>
We tracked index status across paginated archives on 71 sites (page 1 through page N).

— Page 1: 91.0% indexed ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░
— Page 2: 44.0% ▓▓▓▓░░░░░░
— Page 3: 19.0% ▓▓░░░░░░░░
— Page 4+: 7.5% ░░░░░░░░░░

With rel=next/prev retired, deep pagination is on its own — and Google overwhelmingly treats page 1 as the canonical entry, deferring the rest as low-value. The decay curve is steep after page 2.

The risk isn't the listing pages themselves; it's the items reachable only via page 4+. Those inherit the 7.5% discovery rate.

So what: don't rely on deep pagination for discovery. The products/articles on page 5 need an alternate path — category facets, related links, or an HTML sitemap — or they're effectively orphaned behind a wall Google won't climb.