Faceted Navigation Audit Checklist

The checklist is divided into 7 key sections that cover technical SEO, crawlability, indexation, user experience, analytics, and performance.

Use it to prevent overcrawling, conserve server resources, and ensure that search engines focus on indexing valuable content.

Technical Setup
& URL Structure

Are faceted URLs generated consistently using a clean and logical structure?
Are parameters in faceted URLs descriptive (e.g., ?color=red) rather than ambiguous (e.g., ?ref=123)?
Do the facets use GET parameters instead of POST requests to enable crawling?
Are canonical URLs used properly for faceted pages? Do they point to the main category or a preferred version to consolidate ranking signals and avoid duplicate content?
Is the base category URL maintained without facet parameters by default?
Are there human-readable breadcrumb paths or visual indicators for applied facets?
Is there a system to handle URL casing and trailing slashes consistently?

Can search engines crawl all essential faceted URLs?
Are unimportant or duplicate facet combinations blocked via robots.txt or meta robots?
Are internal links to faceted URLs properly controlled to prevent crawl budget waste?
Are there excessive internal links pointing to similar or duplicate faceted pages?
Are there any JavaScript-rendered facets that block crawling by default?
Is the faceted navigation crawl-friendly for both desktop and mobile bots?

Are low-value or duplicate facet combinations being indexed by Google?
Are “noindex” tags applied to non-unique or thin-content facet pages?
Are canonical tags pointing to the correct canonical version of the URL?
Is there a strategy to selectively allow indexing for high-demand facet combinations?
Are paginated facet URLs using rel=“prev/next” (or a modern pagination handling method)?
Are facets being inadvertently blocked from rendering by JavaScript?

Is it clear to users which filters/facets are currently applied?
Are facets collapsible or organized in a user-friendly way (e.g., by category, priority)?
Can users combine multiple filters without confusion or losing context?
Is it easy for users to remove one or all filters?
Are facet options dynamically updating product counts (e.g., “Red (15)”)?
Does the faceted navigation work smoothly on mobile devices?

Are you tracking traffic and conversions from faceted URLs in Google Analytics or another tool?
Do any faceted URLs appear in Search Console or generate impressions/clicks?
Are high-value facets (e.g., top colors, sizes, brands) being optimized for SEO?
Are there keyword opportunities for certain facet combinations?
Are you using internal search data to identify which filters users are applying most?
Are you monitoring index bloat or crawl anomalies in Search Console related to facets?

Are faceted navigation options loaded asynchronously to reduce page load time?
Do applied filters cause full-page reloads, or is AJAX used efficiently?
Are filters and page load times tested under heavy traffic?
Are query string parameters causing duplicate content or performance bottlenecks?
Is lazy loading or deferred loading used for filter-heavy pages?

Are unnecessary faceted URLs blocked via robots.txt, or URL fragments used when indexing isn’t needed?
Do faceted pages specify a canonical URL pointing to the main category or preferred version to consolidate ranking signals and avoid duplicate content?
Are rel=”nofollow” attributes added to links pointing to filtered results pages to discourage crawling of low-value URLs?
Is there a standard order for URL parameters (e.g., always ?color=red&size=medium), to prevent duplicate content issues?
Is the standard ‘&’ character used to separate URL parameters, avoiding uncommon separators like commas (,) or semicolons (;), and brackets ([ and ])?
Does the page return a proper 404 HTTP status code when a filter combination yields no results?
Does the system prevent or handle duplicate filters in the URL (e.g., ?color=red&color=blue) to avoid unnecessary crawling?
Is there a strategy to prioritise crawling of important pages and reduce crawling of low-value faceted URLs?