ElasticSuite has become the industry standard for delivering high-performance search and faceted navigation in Magento 2. Its speed and advanced filtering capabilities provide a phenomenal UX. However, the fundamental structure of layered navigation, which relies on adding parameters to the URL (e.g., /shoes?color=blue&size=9), creates a massive challenge for SEO.

This technical guide explores the conflict between fast ElasticSuite filters and efficient crawling. We detail why the Pretty Filter URLs extension by qoliber is essential for maintaining SEO integrity by converting unwieldy parameter URLs into clean, rankable paths, thereby protecting the store's crawl budget.

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Table of Contents

• 1. The Conflict: ElasticSuite Speed vs. Crawl Budget
• 2. The Duplicate Content Threat
• 3. The Path-Based URL Solution
• 4. Pretty Filter URLs: The qoliber Solution

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1. The Conflict: ElasticSuite Speed vs. Crawl Budget

While ElasticSuite excels at instantly retrieving product sets, it still utilizes the native Magento URL structure, generating query parameters for every applied filter. For search engines, this means:

• Exponential URL Growth: A category with just four filter attributes (color, size, brand, material) can generate thousands of unique URL combinations.
• Wasted Crawl Budget: Google’s crawlers attempt to visit many of these non-unique URLs, wasting valuable time and server resources that should be spent on core product and category pages.

This issue undermines the overall performance gains achieved by a Hyvä frontend paired with ElasticSuite.

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2. The Duplicate Content Threat

The primary SEO danger of parameter-based ElasticSuite filters is the risk of duplicate or near-duplicate content. If not precisely controlled, filter combinations can be mistakenly indexed, resulting in:

• Diluted Authority: SEO link equity is split across multiple, identical pages.
• Poor Ranking: Search engines struggle to determine the authoritative page, suppressing rankings for important filter combinations that could target long-tail keywords.

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3. The Path-Based URL Solution

The developer solution is to implement path-based filtering, which converts the URL parameters into human-readable, static paths. This allows high-value filter combinations to be treated as unique, rankable landing pages.

Example Transformation:

• Parameter URL: /running-shoes?color=red&brand=nike
• Path-Based URL: /running-shoes/red/nike/

This approach gives the developer granular control over which filter combinations should be indexed, turning them into targets for long-tail traffic.

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4. Pretty Filter URLs: The qoliber Solution

The Pretty Filter URLs module by qoliber is the essential link between ElasticSuite performance and SEO integrity. It enables path-based URLs without requiring developers to heavily modify core Magento or Hyvä logic.

Key Technical Benefits:

• Seamless Integration: Works directly with ElasticSuite’s rapid filtering, handling URL rewriting efficiently at the server level.
• Canonical Control: Automatically generates canonical tags for non-indexed filter combinations, pointing authority back to the main category page.
• Crawl Budget Protection: Prevents bots from wasting time on unmanageable parameter URLs, focusing indexing efforts on high-value paths.

By using this module, developers can harness the speed of ElasticSuite filters while achieving superior seo magento. Find technical details and deployment guides on the Pretty Filter URLs extension page.

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Conclusion

Maximizing traffic and revenue in a high-performance Magento 2 store requires pairing speed with SEO integrity. ElasticSuite provides the speed; qoliber Pretty Filter URLs provides the structural cleanliness necessary for efficient crawling and ranking. This combination is non-negotiable for agencies targeting leadership in the eCommerce space.

Explore qoliber’s Hyvä-compatible ecosystem - performance-first, compliance-ready.

Article updated December, 2026