Driving URL indexing with facet navigation of your site in Google

Facet navigation is a common function of sites that allows users to change the display of elements (for example, products, articles or events) on the page. This is a useful and popular function, but its usual implementation based on the URL parameters can lead to an endless number of URL addresses, which can harm the site in several ways:

Right-out scanning: since URLs created for facet navigation can be new and search engines cannot immediately determine their usefulness, they usually scan a large number of URLs until they find out that these pages are useless.
Slow indexation of new pages: due to the loss of time on useless URL address, the search robot spends less time indexing new, useful pages.

The usual URL of facet navigation may contain various parameters in the line line that filter the elements. For example:

HTTPS: // Example.Kom/items.Stm? Product = Fish & Color = Radioactive_ Greet & Sitsa = Tina

Changing the parameters of the URL, such as products, color and size, will show various sets of elements on the same page. This leads to a huge number of possible combinations of filters, which in turn leads to a large number of URL addresses. To save resources, it is recommended to follow one of the following options:

If it is not necessary for the URL address of facet navigation to be indexed, prevent their scanning.
If it is necessary that the URL address of facet navigation indexes, make sure that they follow the best practices described below.

How to prevent indexing URLs of facet navigation of your site in Google

If you want to save server resources and do not want the emergency navigation URL to be displayed in Google, you can prevent their indexation using one of the following methods:

Using Robots.txt to ban scanning URLs of facet navigation. Often it makes no sense to allow scanning filtered pages, as it consumes server resources without significant benefits; Instead, allow you to scan only the pages of individual elements and a page with a full list without filters used:
user-agent: Googlebot
disallow: /*?*products=
disallow: /*?*color=
disallow: /*?*size=
allow: /*?products=all$
Use of URL fragments to specify filters. Google Search usually does not support URL fragments during indexation. If your filtration system uses URL fragments, this will not affect scanning (positively or negatively). For example, instead of URL parameters, use fragments of the URL:
https://example.com/items.shtm#products=fish&color=radioactive_green&size=tiny

Other ways of indicating preferences on scanning URLs of facet navigation include the use of Rel = "Canonical" and the attribute Rel = "Nofollow". However, these methods are less effective in the long term than mentioned earlier.

The use of REL = "Canonical" to indicate the canonical version of the URL of Facet Navigation can eventually reduce the number of scanned non -canonical versions of these URLs. For example, if you have three pages with filtering, specify Rel = "Canonical" to an unfiltered version:
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/items.shtm?products=fish">
The use of attributes Rel = "Nofollow" on the anchors indicating pages with filtering can be useful. However, remember that each anchor indicating a specific URL must have an attribute Rel = "Nofollow" for an effective action.

How to optimize the URL address of facet navigation of your site for indexing in Google

If you want your facet navigation URLs to be potentially indexed, follow the best practices to minimize the negative effects of indexing a large number of URLs:

Keep in mind that the indexation of these URL addresses will lead to an increase in the use of server resources and the potentially slow opening of new URLs on your site.

Use the standard URL parameter separator &. Symbols, such as a comma (,), a point with a comma (;), and brackets ([and]) are difficult to recognize the search engines as dividers of parameters.
If you encode filters along the URL route, for example:/Products/Fish/Green/Tiny, make sure that the logical order of filters always remains the same, and that there are no duplicate filters.
Return the HTTP 404 state code if the filter combination does not lead to the results. If there are no green fish on the site, users and search robots should receive an error "not found" with the corresponding HTTP status (404). It should also occur if the URL contains duplicate filters or incorrect combinations of filters and the absent pages of the pagination.

If you have a one -page application, it may be impossible. Follow the best practices for one -page applications.

If you have questions about the optimization and indexing of URLs of facet navigation, you can seek help from the SEO company CEO By email: info@seo.computer, WhatsApp: +79202044461.

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