Should you use faceted search,  faceted navigation,  filtered search,  filters..?

More to the point, what is a facet? Isn’t it just a filter?

This topic is pretty confusing, and there’s a lot of overlap between facets and filters. On top of that, I actually think the term ‘search’ (faceted search) makes things even more confusing, particularly when we’re talking in the context of SEO!

So, for clarity:

Faceted = Using multiple filters

Search = Your search for something; not a Google or a site search. That’s why navigation is often used in place of search in this context.

You can read more about the subject here.

What is faceted search and why is it useful?

Faceted search is the list of options you see on e-commerce (and other) websites, usually down the left side of the screen. They enable you to look at a large set of ‘things’ and exclude any that don’t meet certain criteria.

It’s helpful for customers

Faceted search is super useful on large e-commerce sites where there are many variables involved in your purchase such as fabric, size, fit, colour, price, brand, when you use the product, etc.

It also contributes to your understanding of the product landscape and provides inspiration for what’s available and what to search for.

It’s handy for SEO

When used correctly, faceted search allows SEO teams to get very specific on what their site can rank for. Having faceted search designed in the right way means single pages can rank in search for specific terms – for example, ‘small grey corner sofas’.

How should faceted search work?

So, faceted search is a win for both users and the SEO team – great. Now, let’s get into a bit of detail about how it should work.

We want a faceted search that helps users sift through a lot of options quickly. We also want them to get an understanding of what their options are and the type of terms they can use to search for things. With that in mind:

• Use language that you know your customers use for the different search options
• When an option has been selected, tell users that the content is updating – use loading animations
• Tell users when the content has updated – change the page state
• Let users continue making selections (they might want to add another filter) – keep the filters in the same place, and don’t reload the page to the top so their filters move
• Give the page context – use customers’ chosen filters in the page title and H1
• Make sure the page is sharable by creating a new and indexable URL  that users can share – if they can do that, Google can find it.

How faceted search helps your SEO team

By designing a faceted search that’s good for your users’ experience, you’re automatically helping the SEO team – defining the above at the design stage and ensuring it’s built that way gives the SEO team greater flexibility in search results and makes their lives much easier. Also, ask your SEO team what customers are searching for and use those terms in your filters and page titles – win-win.

Where UX and SEO part ways 

There’s a point where user needs become less useful to your SEO team. Here’s the scenario…

You’re searching for a new sofa: you’ve got a number of colours in mind and you’re open to many styles, but you’re not sure what fabric you want, so you’ll see what options are out there. You could have a corner shape, but a regular straight sofa could also work. You haven’t thought about the height of the back or the depth of the seat, and maybe a recliner would be cool. And what about when friends stay over – sofabed?!

Problem – too many pages

You get the point: there are a lot of options. That’s why faceted search is so useful. But from an SEO perspective, it means way too many individual pages have to be created. Users need the pages but the search engine doesn’t.

Solution – noindex

There has to be a line drawn when considering faceted search, and you’ll need to decide what you index and what you don’t. You want the right – the most popular and useful – pages visible in search, but also not too many.

If you consider the sheer volume of potential variations – fabric, size, fit, colour, price, brand, star rating…– you quickly end up with hundreds or thousands of pages for Google to sift through. Chances are, they probably wouldn’t index them all anyway!

So, the solution is to plan a noindex strategy to limit the pages visible to search and keep search useful and valuable, while retaining the huge number of pages your customers potentially need.