Faceted Navigation SEO: Avoiding Duplicate Content in Online Stores

Faceted Navigation and Duplicate Content

Faceted navigation is essential for user experience in online stores but is the most common cause of duplicate content issues.

The problem: A shop with 1,000 products and 5 filter types can theoretically generate millions of URL combinations, most with identical or near-identical content.

Solutions:

1. robots.txt: Block parameters with no SEO value (sorting, pagination)
2. Canonical tags: Filtered pages canonicalize to main category
3. noindex, follow: Useful for users but not for indexing
4. Dedicated landing pages: For filter combinations with real search volume (brand filters, price ranges)

Decision rule: If a filter combination has meaningful search volume and justifies unique content, create a dedicated landing page. Otherwise, use canonical or robots.txt.