I am currently working on an eCommerce website, which typically have the following URL structural examples:
1. www.example.com/paintings/flowers/roses/
2. www.example.com/paintings/flowers/roses/abstract/
3. www.example.com/paintings/flowers/roses/black-white/
Whilst the above pages target high search volume keywords, they do feel rather 'messy'. As such, I have been thinking of integrating a Faceted Navigation.
What I am thinking of, is having the following URL structure:
www.example.com/paintings/flowers/
On the above URL, then have the following Facet titles:
- Subject: Roses, Violets, Sunflowers etc.
- Colour: Red, Yellow, Black & White etc.
- Style: Abstract, Fine Art, Figurative etc.
Personally, I feel this would provide a better user experience as well as organising the pages a little better; removing excessive amounts of Product Categories.
Where I have come a little stuck, is in establishing the difference between a Facet and a Child Category; primarily when it comes to SEO.
The obvious difference being the URL. The 'simple' URL, would be:
www.example.com/parent-category/child-category/
with a Facet URL, looking more like:
www.example.com/shop/?color=red&style=abstract&subject=roses
My question, really, is three fold:
- Is a Facet, simply a Child Category?
- Does that mean, a Facet merely pulls the products from their associated Child Categories and outputs them to the page, the Facet is on?
- Is a Facet completely separate to Categories? Therefore, Child Categories still need to be created with the Facet being assigned the
noindex
tag or even a Canonical tag?
Ultimately, I am trying to avoid the issue of duplicate content whilst maintaining organised Product Categories.