How to set up your faceted navigation in SEO | 2022?

SEO comes in many forms, but faceted navigation can be one of the most difficult aspects to optimize. If your website or online store doesn’t have faceted navigation, you may be missing out on a number of potential business opportunities, as users won’t be able to sort through your content using filters.

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This guide will help you understand how to set up your faceted navigation, so users can find what they’re looking for and get closer to purchasing your products or services. This improves the user experience (UX) and, most importantly, optimizes your faceted navigation for search engines.

Firstly, what is faceted navigation ?

Faceted navigation is essentially a way for webmasters and site owners to create navigation structures that help users find what they are looking for more easily. For example, let’s say you own a computer store. In terms of faceted navigation, you could categorize the types of computers (e.g., desktops and laptops) and then categorize them by brand (Dell, HP, Mac, etc.) and/or price (e.g., under $200, $200-$400). The final result would be a website that allows users to search by any of these characteristics, or all three simultaneously if they wish.

Really !

So, why faceted navigation ?

You probably use them, and sometimes you don’t even realize it, whether it’s on shopping or dining sites. When we talk about faceted navigation, we’re talking about a way of presenting information that allows users to quickly access the content they want.
Navigation is important for usability, but when it comes to SEO, there are specific ways that good navigation helps improve your site’s ranking. As with many SEO topics, there is no simple answer as to why good navigation is so important, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn how to implement faceted navigation if you haven’t already.
As you’ve probably already figured out, implementing this feature — faceted navigation — requires its own understanding and methodology. And that’s what we’ll see with the following steps:

Step 1: Refine the look of the site
Faceted navigation represents an opportunity for UX but also for SEO. You can make it as simple or complex as you want, depending on how much content you have and how many facets of that content you want to display.
The faceted navigation allows her to choose filters to see a list with only the templates that match her search in seconds. If you have too many products or content categories, it’s difficult for users to find what they’re looking for by browsing your site directly. In this case, faceted navigation will help them filter the results and get directly to what they want faster.

Step 2: Implementation — Best Practices
Best practices for faceted navigation have been determined through user testing and research. Implementing best practices requires that you follow certain rules or you will run into major problems such as creating massive amounts of unnecessary/duplicated pages or spider traps.
Here are the main things to consider when setting up your faceted navigation:

• Provide the user with an overview of the data and faceted filters. That is, have a well-designed and user-friendly interface, so you can search for content in the most specific way and be able to filter content.
• Allow users to refine their search using facets. And remember, you can always remove facets or refine them based on experience.
• Show all facets at once, not just one at a time.
• Remember that your search engine does not distinguish between organic and paid links, or between links on a navigation page and links on a content page. Therefore, you should remove or hide paid search engine links on all pages that are not part of your site’s navigation system.
• If you have PPC campaigns in place, include call-to-action (CTA) banners on the relevant parts of each page, then link them to the corresponding PPC landing pages. For example, if you sell women’s clothing online, create CTAs for buy women’s clothing online, women’s fashion sales, etc. and then link them to the corresponding campaign landing pages.
• Respect internal links: when adding a new page or section, always check if there are already internal links to it on other pages of your site.

Step 3: Stay consistent!

Link building is one of the things that works best when done consistently. This means having a content program and sticking to it rigorously. While it’s tempting to give up on link building if you don’t see immediate results, in the long run, consistency is your best bet for success. Here are some ways to stay consistent:

• Stick to a schedule: Pick times when you know you have time each week or month (e.g., Sunday nights) and make sure there’s nothing in your schedule that gets in the way of doing what needs to be done.
• Use reminders: There are tons of apps that can help you remember upcoming events or deadlines — use them! One app I like is Todoist, which allows me to create recurring tasks as well as tasks with due dates so I don’t forget anything important. You can also use an online calendar such as Google Calendar or iCalendar, but make sure the tool you choose syncs across all devices so you can easily access it wherever you are!

Step 4: What to Avoid — Pitfalls

Passons maintenant aux pièges de la navigation à facettes que nous devons éviter. Car, si nous ne faisons pas attention lors de la mise en œuvre de notre navigation à facettes, et si nous ne prenons pas certaines précautions que nous avons évoquées ci-dessous, les utilisateurs de notre site peuvent rencontrer certains de ces pièges :

• Too many facets: your site visitors need a place where they can easily find all the information available about your products/services. If there are too many facets, users will get lost. And, above all, don’t create empty facets: if you have an empty facet (without content), Google might think it’s a simple mistake and remove it from the search results completely.

Another very important point is the lack of structure: There has to be a structure and a hierarchy between the facets. Without structure and a simple labeling system, people will not know how to use it or even understand what they are looking at. And, it’s important to note that faceted navigation doesn’t always mean a better search. If you have a very large number of products or services, users may be overwhelmed. A better solution is to use a filter bar: it will allow you to filter by several criteria at once.

• Incomplete taxonomy: The taxonomy must be complete and well thought out before implementation can begin. It should also include synonyms and related terms so that people can easily find what they are looking for.
• The spider trap: the user clicks on a facet and then has to scroll through all the products or services. If there are too many items listed on a page, users will get frustrated and leave.
• Confusing labels: Labels should be clear and concise. When designing them, make sure they are easy for visitors to understand. For example, you can replace “Price” with “Lowest price first”. This way, you can show customers only those products or services that fit their budget.
• Duplicate Content: One of the biggest problems with faceted navigation is that you can end up with a lot of duplicate content. For example, if you have a product page for an MP3 player and then create a separate page for each color and model of that MP3 player, you will have three pages with identical information. This can confuse search engines and users.
• Not mobile friendly: when designing a faceted navigation system, it is important to remember that people use different devices and browsers. It’s also important to keep in mind that many people use their phones or tablets while on the go. Make sure your navigation works well on all devices and browsers.

Bonus Tips

• The first step in creating facets is to add a new taxonomy called facets, and then add terms or keywords representing your products or services. After adding these terms, create custom fields that contain information such as type, brand, price, etc. (following the example we took above).
• One of the most important part of setting up faceted navigation is making sure everything is labeled correctly. Once you have all of these facets in place, you can customize the page titles and meta descriptions for each one so that users can discover relevant product or service content using different search terms.
• It doesn’t matter how many pages or categories you have, as long as they are easy to find and use.
• If you sell laptops, for example, it’s a good idea to include links between main categories and product subcategories.

Do you have any questions and/or suggestions? Feel free to leave them in the comments. I look forward to hearing from you.

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