Faceted navigation and crawl bloat
Filters and sorting options are great for shoppers and a nightmare for crawlers. Every combination of color, size, price, and sort order can generate its own URL, creating thousands of near-duplicate pages that waste crawl budget and dilute rankings.
We map how your faceted navigation generates URLs and recommend how to control it — which combinations to let Google index, which to block, and how to consolidate signals so your real category pages rank.
- Map how filters and sort options generate crawlable URLs
- Identify parameter URLs wasting crawl budget on near-duplicates
- Recommend indexing rules for filter combinations (canonical / noindex / robots)
- Consolidate ranking signals onto the primary category pages
- Check pagination handling on long category lists
Duplicate and thin product pages
Product catalogs are duplicate-content minefields. Manufacturer descriptions copied across retailers, variant pages with near-identical content, and out-of-stock pages that linger all send weak or conflicting signals to Google.
We audit product-level SEO — unique content, canonical handling for variants, and what happens to discontinued products — so your best products get the visibility they deserve.
- Flag products using duplicated manufacturer descriptions
- Set a canonical strategy for color and size variant pages
- Decide handling for out-of-stock and discontinued products (keep, redirect, 410)
- Check product schema (price, availability, reviews) for rich results
- Assess title and meta patterns across thousands of products at scale
Category structure and internal linking
On a big store, category pages are usually your biggest SEO asset — they target the high-volume commercial searches. A clear, logical category structure with strong internal linking decides how much authority reaches your products.
We evaluate your taxonomy, hierarchy depth, and internal linking so important categories aren't buried too deep for Google to value them.
- Review category hierarchy and taxonomy for logic and depth
- Ensure key categories are reachable in few clicks from the homepage
- Strengthen internal links from content and products to categories
- Add or improve indexable category descriptions where thin
- Check breadcrumb structure and its schema markup
More on seo audits
Frequently asked questions
Should I let Google index my filtered and faceted URLs?
Almost never all of them. A few high-value filter combinations that match real searches (like a popular brand within a category) can be worth indexing, but the vast majority should be controlled with canonicals, noindex, or robots rules. Unmanaged, they create thousands of near-duplicate pages that waste crawl budget and split your rankings. The right mix depends on your catalog, which the audit works out.
How do I handle SEO for out-of-stock products?
It depends on whether the product is coming back. If it's returning, keep the page live and indexed. If it's gone for good, redirect it to the closest alternative or parent category, or return a 410 if there's no good match. Leaving dead product pages indexed with no plan is what hurts — the fix is a consistent, deliberate policy.
My product descriptions come from the manufacturer — is that a problem?
It can be. When dozens of retailers use identical manufacturer copy, none of those pages stands out, and Google has little reason to rank yours over another. Adding genuinely unique content — your own descriptions, real reviews, usage details, Q&A — is one of the higher-impact moves for product-page rankings.