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Filter By Category bad for seo?
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Hello Everyone!
I know that a single product should not have filter by color option since it will create duplicate content, and you have to use canonical tags to solve it.
BUT how about sorting through products via category/brands?
Filter by category changes the URL of the General shop page (ex: hello.com/Shop/Category1022039 ). This page only displays the products within, no content/ descriptions etc unlike the original category page(ORIGINAL CATEGORY PAGE) Each of these category/brand already have their own individual pages (ex: hello.com/Shop/A). This is the page that will be optimized for content, FAQ, and ranking etc. Unlike in the url created when filtering through the categories.
So technically I would have 2 URL for each Brand/Category. Would they compete with each other? What would you guys suggest.
Please advise me on this.
Thank You
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No, using a "Filter by Category" function on a website is not inherently bad for SEO. In fact, it can actually improve the user experience and help search engines better understand the organization of your content.
However, it is important to ensure that the implementation of the filter function is done correctly. If the URLs for the filtered pages are not properly handled, it can lead to duplicate content issues and negatively impact SEO. It is recommended to use canonical tags or URL parameters to avoid this.
Additionally, if the filter function generates too many pages with thin or low-quality content, it could potentially harm SEO. It's important to ensure that the filtered pages have enough unique and relevant content to provide value to users and search engines...
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You have to think of your intention for the Google SERPs. Are those pages optimized for the same specific keywords or long term phrase. If yes, take a close look at the performance and ignore canonical Tag or robots settings in the first steps. When you see the ranking performance between the subfolder you will notice which strategy will fit for you. Optimizing a big website for several duplicates is not really helpful but not completely wrong.
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@Safxmed you can use a canonical tag to point the filter page variant to the static category variant. This way, there is a clear signal to Google as to which is the preferred page for showing on SERP. This is the method used by ecommerce giants like Shopee. If a user searched on Google and clicked into their category page, the url would be the static variant. However, if they were to travel from the home page via the filter system to the same category, they are actually given the filtered page variant.
If you do follow this, i still recommend having the static category urls in links from home, menu, and footer where possible. This is for internal linking purposes.
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