Parameter and facet URLs by site type (HTML pages, 293-site crawl)
| Site type | Sites | HTML pages | Pages with query parameters | Filter/sort pages | Sites exposing filter/sort URLs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stores | 100 | 67,249 | 12.7% | 1.4% | 12.0% |
| Shopify-style stores (subset) | 72 | 55,037 | 12.1% | 0.3% | 15.3% |
| WordPress sites | 95 | 50,252 | 3.8% | 0.1% | 3.2% |
| Business sites | 98 | 58,059 | 5.9% | 0.2% | 10.2% |
Source: PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026. HTML pages only, so stores show 12.0% here; the 13-store headline counts all crawled URLs.
Summary
Filters and sort options help shoppers narrow a catalog, but each combination can become its own URL. When those URLs are crawlable, search engines can spend time on endless variations of the same category page.
We crawled 100 ranking online stores to see how often that happens. 13 of them (13.0%) expose crawlable filter or sort URLs, and 12.7% of their crawled HTML pages carry query parameters. Most of those parameters turn out not to be filters at all.
What we measured
We crawled 293 ranking sites, up to 1,000 pages each: 100 stores, 95 WordPress sites and 98 business sites, 195,708 URLs in total. A URL counts as a facet URL when its query string contains a filter, sort, order, view, price, color, size, brand or pa_ key.
Two counts are used and should not be mixed. The 13-store headline counts every crawled URL, while the per-type page figures, including the table, count HTML pages only, where 12 stores expose facet URLs. The 1,000-page cap means large catalogs are only partly crawled, so these figures likely understate how many facet URLs big stores expose.
Store query strings are common, but filters are a small slice
Of the 67,249 crawled store HTML pages, 8,555 (12.7%) carry query parameters. Most of them are not filters. 31.0% are pagination and 30.9% are product variant URLs, while only 10.8% are filter or sort URLs and 7.6% carry tracking parameters.
Filter and sort URLs make up just 1.4% of all store HTML pages (955 of 67,249), and the median exposing store has under 1% of its crawled pages as facet URLs. Query strings themselves are near universal on Shopify-style stores: 91.7% of 72 have at least one crawled parameter URL, and 12.1% of their 55,037 HTML pages carry one.
At page level, faceted URLs are mainly a store issue. Filter or sort pages are 1.4% of store HTML pages, against 0.2% on business sites and 0.1% on WordPress sites. The patterns still show up somewhere on 10.2% of 98 business sites and 3.2% of 95 WordPress sites, against 12.0% of stores on the same HTML-only count, and only 3.8% of WordPress HTML pages carry any query parameter.
13.0%
Share of 100 crawled ranking stores with at least one crawled filter or sort URL.
What this means for your store
In this sample, crawlable filters are a problem for a minority of stores, and pagination and variant URLs make up far more of the parameter pages crawlers find. That makes the fix a matter of checking what your own parameters are before blocking anything.
- Crawl your store and group parameter URLs by key, so you can see which are pagination, variants, tracking or filters.
- If you never want filter or sort URLs crawled, block those parameters in robots.txt, as Google's faceted navigation guidance suggests, and keep them out of plain crawlable links.
- Remove tracking parameters from internal links.
- Leave pagination crawlable, so products deeper in a category can still be found.
Sources
- PageSpeed Matters crawl of 293 ranking sites up to 1,000 pages each, October 2026
- Google Search Central, Managing crawling of faceted navigation URLs: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/crawling-managing-faceted-navigation
Embed this research
Paste this on your site to embed the chart. It links back to the source automatically.
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<script>window.addEventListener("message",function(e){if(e&&e.data&&e.data.psmEmbed==="faceted-navigation-seo"&&e.data.height){var f=document.getElementById("psm-faceted-navigation-seo");if(f){f.style.height=e.data.height+"px";}}});</script>
<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/faceted-navigation-seo">Faceted Navigation: 13% of 100 Crawled Stores Expose Filters - PageSpeed Matters</a></p>
Frequently asked questions
How many online stores expose faceted navigation URLs?
In our crawl of 100 ranking stores, 13 (13.0%) had at least one crawled URL with a filter or sort parameter. Filter and sort pages made up only 1.4% of all store HTML pages.
What are most query parameters on store pages?
Mostly not filters. Of 8,555 store HTML pages with parameters, 31.0% were pagination, 30.9% were product variant URLs, 10.8% were filter or sort URLs and 7.6% were tracking parameters.
Is faceted navigation an SEO problem for non-store sites?
Less often. The same filter patterns appeared on 10.2% of 98 business sites and 3.2% of 95 WordPress sites, and only 3.8% of WordPress HTML pages carried any query parameter.
Parameter URLs are easy to sort once you can see them grouped by key, and tidying filter links keeps crawlers on the pages that sell. Need help with this? See our technical SEO services.