BigCommerce Faceted Navigation: Parameter Rules and Canonicals 

Faceted navigation is crucial for putting site visitors in control of their shopping experience. But on BigCommerce, filters for size, color, price, and other attributes can generate thousands of URL combinations, most of which are low-value for search engines but easy crawl traps for bots. Left unmanaged, BigCommerce faceted navigation can dilute link equity and waste crawl budget. 

With that in mind, the following guide breaks down how to manage BigCommerce filters, SEO elements, canonicals, and parameters in order to keep your site crawlable.

BigCommerce Themes, Templates, and Filters

BigCommerce merchants often start with Stencil themes, such as Cornerstone, which come pre-packaged with category templates and built-in filter functionality. These themes make it easy to display product filters, but by default, they also create new URL parameter strings.

To address the filterable faceted URLs that Stencil automatically generates, you need to layer in canonical and robots handling. Cornerstone allows some control over how filters render, but achieving technical SEO improvements often requires you to edit the meta tags within your theme. 

BigCommerce doesn’t give you a GUI in which to set parameter rules, so parameter handling happens through template logic, sitemap controls, and robots.txt. The theme’s code is where you’ll define when to consolidate filtered pages back to their base category with a canonical tag. Together, these building blocks create the framework for parameter governance in BigCommerce. 

Prerequisites for Optimizing BigCommerce Faceted Navigation 

Before setting up rules for BigCommerce faceted navigation, you must ensure that you (or whoever is tasked with revamping your site) have/has the following:

• Access to theme files
• Control over the robots.txt and sitemap.xml
• Support from developers or a third-party agency

Without these in place, you’ll be unable to alter your BigCommerce canonicals and clean up faceted navigation flows.  

Defining Allowed BigCommerce Parameters

While certain parameters, like size and color, generate duplicate content and should indeed be canonicalized back to their base categories, not every parameter is harmful. Some, like price sorting or in-stock filters, provide unique value to users and can remain crawlable.

With that in mind, here are some tips for what to block and what to allow:

• Allowed Parameters: Sorting options that materially change results may be kept crawlable 
• Blocked or Canonicalized Parameters: Attribute filters should consolidate to the main category URL 
• Parameter Combinations: Multi-select filters quickly multiply into crawl bloat

By clearly defining which BigCommerce parameters are allowed, you create a blueprint for both your canonicals and robots rules. 

Sitemap Inclusion Rules

A healthy BigCommerce sitemap should only contain canonical URLs. In other words, these three rules must be followed:

• Only include base category URLs and product URLs that represent primary, indexable content
• Exclude parameterized URLs, filter combinations, and temporary promotions
• Use a sitemap generator that respects canonical tags to ensure that filtered pages are never submitted

These guidelines will keep your sitemap lean and aligned with your canonical strategy. 

Robots Guardrails

Even with canonicals in place, bots may still crawl filtered URLs. That’s where robots.txt comes in. Use it to do the following:

• Disallow Unwanted Patterns: Block parameter strings like size, color, and brand 
• Allow Key Sort Options: If certain parameters add unique value, carve them out as exceptions 
• Test in Search Console: Always validate robots patterns to ensure important URLs aren’t accidentally blocked

These actions will serve as a backstop for crawler waste that canonicals alone won’t solve. 

Validation and QA

After you’ve implemented the above rules, you’ll need to test them. Here’s how:

• Sample 20 Filtered URLs: Confirm they point canonicals to the base category and carry the right tags 
• Check Log Files: Look for reductions in crawl waste
• Generate a Search Console Coverage Report: Verify parameterized URLs are excluded from the index 
• Review Page Speed Metrics: Ensure that your cleanup efforts haven’t impacted rendering

A systematic validation process prevents misconfigurations that could drag you down in the rankings. 

Technical Example of Canonical for Faceted Pages

Here’s a pseudocode example for BigCommerce category pages:

{{! In templates/components/common/meta-tags.html or theme head }}

// If the category page has query parameters for filters, point canonical to the base category URL

{{#if query_string}}

  <link rel=”canonical” href=”{{category.url}}”>

  <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,follow”>

{{/if}}

Implementing simple code like this ensures that faceted parameter URLs point back to the clean category and are not indexed. 

Acceptance Criteria

When done correctly, BigCommerce faceted navigation cleanup should move you closer to the following performance thresholds:

• A max crawl depth of three or less
• Zero indexable parameter pages
• Faster crawl efficiency
• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) of 2.5 seconds or less
• Zero Rich Results warnings 

If you’ve moved closer to these benchmarks but still aren’t quite where you want to be, revisit the steps above; chances are that a few minor oversights are holding you back. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is BigCommerce Faceted Navigation?

It’s the filter system that lets customers refine products by attributes like size, color, or price. 

Why Are BigCommerce Parameters an SEO Issue?

They generate duplicate content and crawl waste. Without governance, they’ll dilute rankings and confuse search engines, costing you sales. 

Do BigCommerce Canonicals Fix Everything?

Canonicals help consolidate signals, but you also need robots guardrails and sitemap controls for a complete solution. 

Build a Winning BigCommerce Faceted Navigation Plan

Unmanaged filters may seem insignificant at first, but over time, they can erode your SEO performance. By setting clear rules for BigCommerce parameters, applying canonicals, and validating with crawl data, you’ll keep your store scalable and index-friendly. 

If you need help cleaning up your BigCommerce faceted navigation, contact Net Profit Marketing today to schedule a technical audit.