Dilemma: Should we use pagination or 'Load More' Function

[danialniazi]

In the interest of pleasing Google with their recent updates and clamping down on duplicate content and giving a higher preference to pages with rich data, we had a tiny dilemma that might help others too.

We have a directory like site, very similar to Tripadvisor or Yelp, would it be best to:

A) have paginated content with almost 40 pages deep of data   < OR >

B) display 20 results per page and at the bottom have "Load More" function which would feed more data only once its clicked.

The problem we are having now is that deep pages are getting indexed and its doing us no good, most of the juice and page value is on the 1st one, not the inner pages.

Wondering what are the schools of thought on this one.

Thanks

[irvingw]

if the load more is SEO friendly and all the content is on the first page AND the page speed (load time) is somewhat reasonable I would put it all on the one page and noindex,follow the paginated ones.

[danialniazi]

Thanks Irving.

Could you elaborate a bit on Load More being SEO friendly? Is there a way of doing it that is potentially damaging?

Also, if this is done, there wouldnt be a need to have paginated content, thus making the whole noindex part irrelevant, right?