Best-practice URL structures with multiple filter combinations
-
Hello,
We're putting together a large piece of content that will have some interactive filtering elements. There are two types of filters, topics and object types.
The architecture under the hood constrains us so that everything needs to be in URL parameters. If someone selects a single filter, this can look pretty clean:
www.domain.com/project?topic=firstTopic
or
www.domain.com/project?object=typeOneThe problems arise when people select multiple topics, potentially across two different filter types:
www.domain.com/project?topic=firstTopic-secondTopic-thirdTopic&object=typeOne-typeTwo
I've raised concerns around the structure in general, but it seems to be too late at this point so now I'm scratching my head thinking of how best to get these indexed. I have two main concerns:
- A ton of near-duplicate content and hundreds of URLs being created and indexed with various filter combinations added
- Over-reacting to the first point above and over-canonicalizing/no-indexing combination pages to the detriment of the content as a whole
Would the best approach be to index each single topic filter individually, and canonicalize any combinations to the 'view all' page? I don't have much experience with e-commerce SEO (which this problem seems to have the most in common with) so any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
-
Thanks for the detailed answer Jonathan. What you suggested was definitely in line with my thinking - indexing just the single topics at most and trying to either noindex or canonicalize all the thousands of possible variations. I definitely agree that all those random combinations of topics/objects hold no real value and at best will eat up crawl budget unnecessarily.
I can make sure Google treats these parameters as URLs via Search Console, they're unique to this piece of content; and I think I can noindex all the random combinations of filters (hopefully).
I'm still waiting to hear more from the dev team but I have a feeling that I won't be able to change the format to subdirectories instead of differentiating everything with query parameters - not the ideal situation but I'll have to make do.
Anyways, thanks again for your thoughtful reply!
Josh
-
Google is supposed to disregard everything after the ? in the query string when indexing. However, I know at times query strings will get indexed if the content on the query stringed URL appears different enough to Google. So I would agree with your motive to try to get these dynamic URLs simplified.
From what i have read on similar scenarios, and my first thought is, do these filtered view pages benefit searchers? Typically it benefits searchers to index maybe the category level of pages. In your instance, this may be the first topic. But once URLs start referencing very specific content that one user was filtering for, I would probably suggest a noIndex meta tag. There should be a scalable solution to this so you don't have to individual go into every filtered page possibility and add noIndex to the head.
If there is a specific filtered view you believe may benefit searches, or you have already seen a demand for, I would suggest making this a page using subfolders
www.domain.com/project/firstTopic/typeOne
and noIndexing all the crazy dynamically generated query string URLs. This should allow you to seize opportunities where you see search demand and alleviate any duplicate content risks.
If you don't want to noIndex, I would gauge the quality of these nitty gritty filtered pages, and if you see value in them, I would agree canonicalizing to the preceding category page sounds like a good solution.
I think this article does a good job explaining this. It suggests that if your filters are just narrowing content on the page rather than changing it, to noIndex or canonicalize (Although, the author does remind you that canonicalization is only a suggestion to Google and is not followed 100% of time for all scenarios).
I hope this helps, and if you don't see how these solutions would be implemented on your site, this issue may require some dev help.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Multiple Markups on The Same Page - Best Solution?
Hi there! I have a website that is build in react javascript, and I'm trying to use markup on my pages. They are mostly articles about general topics with common questions (about the topic), and for most articles I would like to use two markups: article markup + FAQ Markup ( for the questions in the article) article markup + how-to markup Can I do this or will Google get confused? Since I have two @type at the same time, for example @type": "FAQPage" and "@type": "Article". How should I think? I'm using https://schema.dev/ right now. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Leowa0 -
Best Practices for Creating Back Links from "Thought Leader" Content
What is the best way to use articles from a "thought leader" to build high-quality links to my website? I have heard that it is possible to pay bloggers to post business articles that link back to a website. That assuming these blogs have domain authority this is a good technique to improve ranking. Is this in fact true, and if so where would I find blogs to post our content. The purpose would be to promote real estate brokerage website. Any suggestions? Is this possible, advisable, best use of quality content? Alternatively, where else can we post engaging content to create links back to our site? Social media? The nature of the content would be such topics as how to find the best value in Manhattan office of loft space rentals, etcera. Thanks, Alan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kingalan10 -
ECommcerce internal linking structure best practice
Hi, Can anyone advise on the best internal linking practice for an eCommerce website? Should the introduction copy on each category page contain naturally placed links down to sub categories and products and should each sub category link back up to the main category page. Is there a 'best practice' method of linking categories, sub categories and products? In terms of internal linking product pages, I presume the best practice would be to link other relevant products to each each? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SmiffysUK0 -
Location in URLs question
Hi there, my company is a national theater news publisher. Quick question about a particular use case. When an editor publishes a story they can assign several discrete locations, allowing it to appear on each of those locations within our website. This article (http://www.theatermania.com/denver-theater/news/full-casting-if-then-tour-idina-menzel_74354.html), for example, appears in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Denver section. We force the author to choose a primary location from that list, which controls the location displayed in the URL. Is this a bad practice? I'm wondering if the fact that having 'Denver' in the URL is misleading and hurts SEO value, particularly since that article features several other cities.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TheaterMania0 -
Product or Shop in URL
What do you think is better for seo and for sale, I am using woo-ecommerce for health products website. websitename.com/product/keyword OR websitename.com/shop/keyword
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MasonBaker0 -
Best practices on setting up multi country Magento store
We run Magento and we're in the process of redesigning our site. We want the site to have separate storefronts for different countries, however we won't have the site language translated initially. We're thinking we'll use the Magento multi-store feature and have sites like /fr, /de /en-us, /en-au, etc. Is the best practice to use hreflang and for the non-english stores which haven't yet been translated? For example set them as, for French users: Essentially saying, the page is aimed at French people, but is in English. The separate storefronts will have things like currency and tax localised to each country and will gradually be getting translated, especially the more generic stuff like "Add to Cart", "Checkout" etc. Or, should it be targeted at French language and country, despite not all being translated into French? Or is there a better way to do this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seanmccauley0 -
Switching Url
I started working with a Roofer/Contractor about a year ago. His website is http://www.lancasterparoofing.com/. The name of his business is Spicher Home Improvements. He used to have spicherhomeimprovements.com, well he still does. He was focusing on Roofing and Siding but now would like to branch to other areas like Interior remodeling. So adding interior work under LancasterPaRoofing.com is not applicable. I do not think starting another domain and having two is the best option. I think he should go back to using SpicherHomeImprovements.com and I assume he would take a small hit but in time he should be better off. Plus the url is more applicable to the real name of his business. Thanks for any feedback I receive. Chad
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ChadEisenhart0 -
Optimising a website for multiple keywords and multiple towns
Hello, We have a clients site who we are trying to rank for 10 keywords accross 20 towns so a combination of 200. What would be the best way to tackle this. Their url is www.abbottclarkeifa.co.uk. Thanks Shehzad
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Gareth_Cartman0