Paginated content uses rel=next/prev or canonicalizes to page 1

Paginated routes without rel=next/rel=prev or canonical consolidation get indexed as disconnected, competing URLs — page 2 of /products ranks against page 1 for the same keywords, splitting link equity and diluting ranking signals. Googlebot treats each paginated URL as a standalone thin page, which suppresses the whole listing's authority and can trigger soft-404 classification on sparse pages.

Emit pagination metadata on every listing route. In app/products/page.tsx, compute the canonical strategy based on the current page:

export async function generateMetadata({ searchParams }) {
  const page = Number(searchParams.page) || 1
  return { alternates: { canonical: `/products?page=${page}` } }
}

Prefer a single canonicalized view-all page when the listing fits under 100 items.