AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

Category URL is the same when proceeding to Page 2, 3, 4 and so on.

How does this effect the search engines?

I think that depends on who you talk to. Some people say it doesn't matter and some say it is duplicate URLs. I would think a search engine like Google is smart enough to figure out the query string of what is paging. I've got a client who was told that it did cause duplicate URLs and he would be penalized, so I changed the page links in his 5.5 store so that the URL changed some as well as having the page number in the query string, but I don't know that it was that much of an issue to start with. He did all the things the SEO company he was paying said to do and it didn't affect his traffic much.

I think that Google is reading and indexing all the pages as well as the URL - and each page is different - so not duplicate even though URL is same - so they will all be indexed. But generally, if a URL is the same the first one might show up in a Seach but not the 2,3,4 etc Google - unless there is a keyword on page 2. I am referring to the Search Results that show for that URL. Google generally only gives you 1-2 returns with snippets for a given URL.

After you are indexed try searching for your site name URL + a product that is on page 2 or 3. I will bet you find it listed in the Search returns - even if it is several pages deep.

Don