SEO for filtered pages NEW

Overview

When you keep filters in the URL with the URL query string feature, every filter combination gets its own URL that search engines can crawl. Most of these URLs show part of the same entries as your listing page, so they end up as near-copies of it.

Since v4.7.0, the {{ livewire-filters:seo }} tag tells search engines which of these URLs to index:

• The listing page and its later pages stay indexable.
• Filtered and sorted URLs get noindex,follow and a canonical URL that points to the listing page.
• Filters you choose can stay indexable, for example to have a landing page for each brand.

Adding the tag

Add the tag to the <head> of your layout:

<head>
    {{ livewire-filters:seo }}
    ...
</head>

It outputs a canonical URL on every page that uses the layout, not only on pages with filters.

Already have a canonical tag?

A page must not have two different canonical URLs. If an SEO addon or your template already outputs one, see Using it with another canonical tag.

What the tag outputs

This section is about the Livewire query string mode (enable_query_string). The custom query string mode works differently.

For a cars listing page, the tag outputs:

URL	Canonical	Robots
/cars	/cars
/cars?page=2	/cars?page=2
/cars?params[fuel_type:is]=diesel	/cars	noindex,follow
/cars?params[fuel_type:is]=diesel&page=2	/cars	noindex,follow
/cars?params[sort]=seats:asc	/cars	noindex,follow
/cars?utm_source=newsletter	/cars

Canonical URLs are always absolute. A filtered page gets these two tags:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/cars">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow">

Later pages keep their own canonical URL and stay indexable, as Google recommends for pagination.

Without the URL query string feature, the filters aren't in the URL, so the tag only outputs the canonical URL, with the page number on later pages.

Filtering in the browser doesn't change these tags. That's fine, because search engines load each URL on its own.

What counts as a filter

A URL counts as filtered when its params hold a field:condition style key (such as fuel_type:is, taxonomy:car_brand:any or a query scope key), or sort, order_by or taxonomy.

Everything else is ignored and left out of the canonical URL, such as page_name, keys in blocked_query_params, data you pass to the template and query strings like utm_source.

Keeping some filters indexable

Some filtered pages are worth indexing. A page with all the Audi cars is a good landing page for a "used Audi" search. List these filters in the seo_indexable_filters config key:

'seo_indexable_filters' => ['car_brand'],

A filtered URL then stays indexable, with a canonical URL to itself, when every active filter is in the list, each filter has one value, and it's the first page:

Filters in the URL	Result
Brand: audi	Indexable, canonical to itself
Brand: audi and bmw	noindex,follow, canonical to /cars
Brand: audi, fuel type: diesel	noindex,follow, canonical to /cars
Brand: audi, page 2	noindex,follow, canonical to /cars
Brand: audi, sorted by seats	noindex,follow, canonical to /cars

You can list a filter in three ways:

• Field handle, such as car_brand: matches any condition on that field.
• Parameter key, such as taxonomy:car_brand:any: matches only that key.
• Alias, such as brand: matches the key the alias points to in custom_query_string_aliases.

Only list filters with a fixed set of values

The tag doesn't check the value. With car_brand in the list, a URL with a brand that doesn't exist is an indexable page without entries. For the same reason, don't list a text filter: every search term would get its own indexable URL.

sort counts as a filter, so sorted URLs aren't indexed. Keep in mind that in the Livewire query string mode, once a visitor changes a filter, the URL also carries the conditions and the sort you preset on the {{ livewire-collection }} tag. If your tag has sort="title:asc", add sort to seo_indexable_filters so those URLs stay indexable.

Custom query string mode

In the custom query string mode, a filter URL such as /cars/search/brand/audi shares the listing page's static cache entry, <head> included. A noindex there would also be served for the listing page. So in this mode:

• The tag outputs nothing on a first page, and the canonical URL with the page number (/cars?page=2) on later pages.
• Filter URLs get their signals as HTTP headers: X-Robots-Tag instead of the robots tag, and a Link header instead of the canonical tag. Google supports both, including the canonical header.

The headers are off by default. Turn them on in the config file:

'seo_filter_headers' => true,

Turn on the headers

With seo_filter_headers off, filter URLs get no noindex and no canonical URL in this mode.

With the headers on, and the brand alias in seo_indexable_filters, the responses carry these headers:

URL	X-Robots-Tag	Link canonical
/cars
/cars/search/fuel/diesel	noindex, follow	/cars
/cars/search/brand/audi		/cars/search/brand/audi
/cars/search/brand/audi,bmw	noindex, follow	/cars
/cars/search/brand/audi?page=2	noindex, follow

A filtered page above 1 gets no Link header, because its <head> already carries the canonical of the unfiltered page (/cars?page=2).

The headers are never stored in the static cache, so they work with both half and full measure. To check a URL, use curl:

curl -sI https://example.com/cars/search/fuel/diesel | grep -iE "x-robots-tag|^link"

Custom page names

The tag reads the page number from the page query string. If a collection tag sets another page_name, add it to the seo_page_names config key:

'seo_page_names' => ['page', 'p'],

Using it with another canonical tag

If an SEO addon such as SEO Pro, or your template, already outputs a canonical URL, set canonical="false". The tag then only outputs the robots tag:

{{ livewire-filters:seo canonical="false" }}

When you do this:

• Filtered URLs still get noindex,follow, but the other tag decides their canonical URL.
• For a filter URL in seo_indexable_filters to be indexed as its own page, the other canonical has to point to that URL, not to the listing page.
• In the custom query string mode, the tag has nothing left to output, so you only need the headers. If you use seo_indexable_filters, remove the other canonical tag from your listing templates, because it would conflict with the Link header of an indexable filter URL.

All three config keys are listed on the Installation page.