Facets as Parameters
This section applies to the Elbrus release of SuiteCommerce Advanced and later.
When you use Faceted Navigation, all your selections get combined into one URL as you narrow down your search. You can configure how each facet is included in the URL. This section covers your options and how they affect SEO. For details on each configurable property, see Facets Subtab.
You can:
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Configure all facets as part of the URL path (default).
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Configure all facets to work as URL parameters.
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Configure each facet to be either a URL parameter or part of the URL path.
If you change any facet fields, you’ll need to re-index your site. It might take 30 to 60 minutes for the changes to show up because of caching.
Facets as URL Path
When a user filters their search by adding more facets, the number of facet combinations can become large. If you configure facets as part of the URL path, the URL gets longer as more facets are added. This means more unique pages get indexed by search engines, which can have a negative impact on your SEO.
Using facets in the URL path leads to the following:
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You’ll need to manually update robots.txt to block these URLs from being indexed when you add new facets. See SEO and Robots.txt for details.
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The SEO Page Generator runs through every possible path when indexing your site. This can add multiple filtering combinations and overwhelm the SEO Page Generator with unnecessary information.
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Too many facet combinations can have an adverse effect on any sitemaps produced.
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Search engine web crawlers can reach your content though many different URLs.
When treating facets as part of the URL path, the SEO Page Generator considers the entire path in the index, as shown in the following example:
www.site.com/facet1/value1/facet2/value2/
If you’re using the Vinson release or earlier, all facets are part of the URL path and you can’t change this.
Facets as URL Parameters
Using facets as URL parameters means fewer unique pages get indexed, which helps your search rankings and makes your web store easier to find. When facets are set as URL parameters, the SEO Page Generator ignores them when indexing your site.
You don’t need to edit robots.txt for SEO if your facets are set as URL parameters.
When configuring facets as URL parameters, the SEO Page Generator considers only the web store domain in the index as shown in the following example (www.site.com):
www.site.com?facet1=value1&facet2=value2