your layout looks like this: <div> // blah blah <div id="mainContent"> // main content placeholder </div> // blah blah </div> and your page looks like this: <div> // blah blah page </div> when you load you page without a master it looks like: <div> // blah blah page </div> when you load it with a master it looks like this: <div> // blah blah <div id="mainContent"> <div> // blah blah page </div> </div> // blah blah </div> Now when you move to the next page it can be done in two ways: 1. Request the full page via a url(http get) without an ajax -> you load the master page as well. Same as your first request. This will probally be done with window.location.href = getNextPageUrl(); . The server will realize that this isn't an Ajax request and will load the layout as well. 2. Use JQuery.load for loading the next page -> load it without a master since the master is already loaded. How do you do this? $('#mainContent').load('@Url.Action("action","controller")'); The server will recieve a request and it will realize this is an Ajax request(XmlHttpRequest) and therefore it will set the layout to be null. You are loading a subset of you page(you have the master and your replacing the main div).