Facets as Parameters
This section applies to the Elbrus release of SuiteCommerce Advanced and later.
When using Faceted Navigation, any selections concatenate into a single URL as users refine their search criteria. You can configure how each facet is included in the URL. This section explains the different options and how each affects search engine optimization. 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 act as URL parameters.
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Configure individual facets as either URL parameters or as part of the URL path.
Any changes made to facet fields require that you re-index your site. You may experience a 30 to 60 minute cache delay before changes to this property take effect on your site.
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 current facet value displayed in the URL grows as the facets increase. This increases the number of unique pages indexed by search engines and can have a negative impact on SEO.
Using facets as part of the URL path results in the following:
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You must manually update robots.txt to block URLs from being indexed to accommodate any facets added to your site. See SEO and Robots.txt for details.
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The SEO Page Generator executes each 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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The large number of 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 implementing Vinson release of SuiteCommerce Advanced or earlier, all facets are treated as part of the URL path and this is not configurable.
Facets as URL Parameters
Using Facets as URL parameters results in fewer unique pages indexed by search engines, thus optimizing searches and improving your web store’s rank. As parameters, any faceted URL information is treated as a parameter and not considered by the SEO Page Generator when indexing your site.
You need not edit the robots.txt file to ensure search engine optimization for facets configured 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