Faceted Navigation: Controlling the URL Explosion
Filters can generate millions of URLs. Here is how to keep them from consuming your crawl budget.
E-Commerce SEO
The scale of the problem
A category with six filters each having five options generates over 15,000 URL combinations. Most are near-duplicates with no search demand. Left unmanaged they consume crawl budget that should reach your product pages.
The decision framework
For each filter, ask whether people search for that combination. Colour and size frequently have demand. Sorting order and page number never do. Index the former with unique titles, block or canonicalise the latter.
Implementation
Use robots.txt for parameters with no value, canonical tags for near-duplicates with some value, and full optimisation with unique content for combinations with genuine demand.
Key takeaways
- Six filters with five options generates over 15,000 URLs
- Ask whether people search each combination before indexing it
- Sort order and pagination parameters never warrant indexing
- Combine robots.txt, canonicals, and selective optimisation
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