Pagination can take many different forms. However, it’s generally made up of labels, indicators, arrows, or some combination of the three. There’s no single perfect implementation. But we can get close by considering each of these elements, in context, before they are removed—or implied.
Look at the type of content being paginated, and—more importantly—how it’s sorted.
First, you should look at the type of content being paginated, and—more importantly—how it’s sorted. This should define the language used for labels. In most cases, contacts are sorted alphabetically, blog posts are sorted reverse-chronologically, and search results are sorted by relevance.