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Indexing a PrestaShop-based e-commerce site can be a complex process, especially when using advanced search modules like “ps_facetedsearch” or third-party solutions like Amazzing Filter or AS4/5. One of the most common issues that arise in these contexts is related to the excessive crawling of dynamically generated URLs by navigation filters, which can lead to inefficient consumption of Crawl Budget. This, in turn, can affect the speed with which Google indexes the truly relevant pages.
In this article, we will analyze in detail the causes of these problems and provide a complete guide on how to optimize the indexing process, while improving Crawl Budget management for a PrestaShop-based site with NGINX as the web server.
1. Understanding the problem of ineffective indexing
Pages crawled but not indexed
A very common problem that PrestaShop site administrators encounter is pages that are crawled by Googlebot, but then not indexed. In Google Search Console, this phenomenon is reported with the message “Page crawled, but not currently indexed”.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing: Google may deem some pages not relevant enough to be indexed in its search index. However, when a lot of pages are crawled unnecessarily, this causes an excessive consumption of the Crawl Budget, which is the amount of resources that Google allocates to crawling a site. If too many resources are used to crawl pages of little importance, this can delay the indexing of key pages, such as product pages and main categories.
Furthermore, excessive crawling can overload server resources, causing slowdowns and potential performance issues and in fact a real DoS Denial of Service, or denial of service. In an e-commerce context, where page loading speed is a critical factor both for the user and for search engine positioning, this can have a negative impact on sales and user experience.
Navigation filters and dynamic URLs
A structured e-commerce generates a high number of URLs thanks to navigation filters, a system known as faceted search o faceted navigation. This mechanism allows users to refine their search within a catalog using specific parameters, such as price, brand, color, availability, size, material and many other features. With this feature, users can quickly find products that match their needs, significantly improving the shopping experience.
La faceted navigation It is especially useful for e-commerce sites that offer a wide assortment of products, such as clothing, electronics, or home goods stores. Without this technology, visitors would have to browse through entire categories to find what they are looking for, which increases frustration and reduces conversion rates.
Modules like “ps_facetedsearch” on PrestaShop implement this technology dynamically, automatically generating filter combinations and updating the URL to reflect the user's selections. However, if this functionality is not handled properly, it can create indexing problems for search engines. Each time a user applies a filter, the system generates a unique URL that reflects the selected parameters.
For example, a user searching for red Nike shoes, with a price between 50 and 100 euros, might get a URL like:
https://www.tuosito.com/categoria/?q=rosso&price=50-100&brand=nikeWhile this approach is great for improving user navigation, it can become problematic from an SEO perspective. Each combination of filters can generate hundreds or thousands of URL variations, creating a proliferation of pages that, from Google's point of view, are often redundant or not relevant enough to be indexed. The main problem is that Googlebot could dedicate a significant part of its crawl budget to scan these filtered pages, without then indexing them.
If the site has a large assortment of products and many filters available, the number of URLs generated can increase exponentially. This can lead to a dispersion of scanning resources, preventing Google from focusing on the pages that really matter, like main product listings and essential categories.
Another risk associated with faceted browsing is the content duplication. Since many of the generated pages show very similar sets of products, Google may consider them duplicates and assign them a very low priority, making them even more difficult to index.
To avoid these problems, it is essential to implement intelligent management strategies for faceted URLs, through tools such as robots.txt, noindex meta tag, canonical URL and server-side rules (NGINX or Apache). Only in this way can you balance the need for an optimal user experience with an effective SEO strategy, avoiding wasting the site's positioning potential.
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2. Indexing Optimization Strategies
2.1 Update the search form for aspects
If you are using the “ps_facetedsearch” module or another advanced search extension, the first thing to do is to make sure that the module is updated to the latest version available. PrestaShop and third-party module developers periodically release updates that may contain fixes for dynamic URL handling and indexing improvements.
In addition to updating, it is useful to check the module settings to optimize URL generation and, if possible, prevent it from creating useless or duplicate URLs. Some modules allow you to customize the behavior of URL generation, avoiding creating redundant combinations.
2.2 Regenerate the robots.txt file
One of the most effective tools to limit the scanning of useless pages is the file robots.txt. This file provides instructions to search engine crawlers about which pages they should or should not crawl.
In PrestaShop, the file robots.txt can be regenerated from the admin panel: Advanced Settings -> Traffic & SEO -> SEO & URLs -> Generate robots.txt file
After regenerating it, you may need to manually add some directives to block URLs with dynamic parameters, such as search filters. A useful configuration example is the following:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /*?q=
Disallow: /*?price=
Disallow: /*?brand=These directives prevent Google crawlers from crawling URLs with filter parameters, reducing the number of pages crawled unnecessarily. However, it should be noted that Google sometimes ignores the robots.txt and continue scanning pages.
2.3 Server-side optimization with NGINX
If your e-commerce site uses NGINX as a web server, you can take steps to better manage crawling and reduce server pressure. Rather than blocking access entirely with an error code, a more effective solution might be to implement a rewrite rule that redirects unwanted URLs to a canonical version of the page.
Example:
location ~* \?(q|price|brand)= {
rewrite ^(.*)$ /$1? permanent;
}This setup does not block users, but directs them to the main version of the page, reducing the proliferation of useless URLs.
3. Crawl Budget Analysis and Monitoring
After implementing optimizations, it is important to monitor the effectiveness of the interventions. Some useful tools for this analysis are:
- Google Search Console: In the “Settings > Crawl Statistics” section, you can check whether the number of crawled URLs has decreased.
- NGINX Logs: By analyzing requests in server logs, you can find out which URLs are crawled most often by Googlebot.
- Google Analytics: Through bot traffic reports, you can check if Googlebot behavior has changed after implementing optimizations.
4. Conclusions
Effectively managing the indexing of a PrestaShop site is a crucial aspect to maximize SEO performance and improve visibility on search engines. An incorrect configuration can lead to a dispersion of the Crawl Budget, causing inefficient scanning by Google and a lack of focus on the really important pages such as product sheets and main categories. The adoption of targeted strategies, such as file optimization robots.txt, intelligent management of faceted URLs, the use of meta tags noindex when necessary and the correct implementation of rewriting rules on NGINX, allows to control the proliferation of useless URLs and ensure more effective scanning.
Furthermore, cache management and system resource optimization are essential to maintain high site performance, avoiding slowdowns due to an overloaded database or superfluous requests to the server. Constant monitoring using tools such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Server Log Analysis allows you to identify any critical issues and further refine your indexing strategy.
In ours Hosting services optimized for PrestaShop, we take into account all these peculiarities, providing advanced solutions to guarantee the better performance and SEO-friendly infrastructure. Our servers are configured to efficiently manage indexing, optimize cache and reduce the workload resulting from automatic search engine crawling. In addition, we offer specialized support to help you implement best configuration practices and keep your e-commerce always performing and competitive in search results.
Optimizing the indexing of an e-commerce is not only a matter of SEO, but also of operational efficiency and user experience. Relying on a hosting designed for the specific needs of PrestaShop means being able to count on a solid, secure infrastructure that is capable of adapting to the evolutions of the digital market.
