Pagination and Controller setup
You can move urls and titles to helpers and articles search to separate method

class HomeController &lt; ApplicationController
  # this methods can be used in view template
  helper_method :next_page_url, :page_title

  @@articles_per_page = 6
  @@first_page_articles_options = {:page=&gt;'1', :per_page=&gt;@@articles_per_page}
  @@second_page_url_options = {:controller =&gt;:home, :action =&gt; :page, :page_id=&gt;  2}


  def index
    @paged_articles = articles.search(@@first_page_articles_options)
    @tags = get_tags
  end

  def tags
    @paged_articles = load_articles
    @tags = get_tags

    render :index
  end
   def about
      @page_title = "About"
  end

  private

    def load_articles
      ...
    end 

  ...

  # helpers

  def next_page_url
    if filter_by_tags?
      url_for(@@second_page_url_options)  
    else
      @@second_page_url_options[:tag_name] = params[:tag_name]
      url_for(@@second_page_url_options)
    end    
  end

  def page_title
    if filter_by_tags?
      "Recent articles" 
    else
      "Search articles by tags"
    end  
  end

  def filter_by_tags?
    params[:tag_name].present?
  end
end