# Stop Crawlers Paging Endlessly Through Old Archives

> Returns a "not found" page for archive pages beyond page 50 (such as /page/873/) for logged-out visitors, which keeps bots from hammering your database with very slow deep pagination queries.

- Type: PHP
- Runs: Frontend cl
- Category: [Performance](https://wpide.com/library/category/performance/)
- Tags: pagination, crawlers, database
- Author: WPIDE Team
- Installs: 0
- Updated: 2026-10-28
- Page: https://wpide.com/library/perf-limit-deep-pagination/

## Code

```php
// Highest archive page number served to logged-out visitors.
$wpide_max_page = 50;

add_action( 'template_redirect', function () use ( $wpide_max_page ) {
    global $wp_query;

    if ( is_user_logged_in() || ! is_paged() || (int) get_query_var( 'paged' ) <= $wpide_max_page ) {
        return;
    }

    $wp_query->set_404();
    status_header( 404 );
    nocache_headers();
}, 1 );
```

## Notes

Visitors can still reach old posts through search, categories and the sitemap; raise $wpide_max_page if your archives are browsed that deep on purpose.

## How to use it

Install the free WPIDE plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpide/), find "Stop Crawlers Paging Endlessly Through Old Archives" in its snippet library and add it in one click; or create a new PHP snippet in WPIDE (or any code snippets plugin) and paste the code above. More snippets: https://wpide.com/library/