Parameter URLs vs rewritten clean URLs for filters — which should I use?

Parameter URLs vs rewritten clean URLs for filters — which should I use?

'Q: Should my filters be /shoes?color=red or /shoes/red/ as a clean path?'

Short answer: Parameters (?color=red) for filters you want managed and mostly out of the index; clean static paths (/shoes/red) only for filter combos you've decided should rank.

The longer version: Parameters are easier to govern — one robots/noindex rule on ?color= covers thousands of combos, and Google understands them as filters, not unique pages. The risk of clean-pathing every filter is that /shoes/red/ looks like a real indexable page, so Google indexes the whole combinatorial explosion as 'content.'

So be deliberate. Reserve clean URLs for the handful of attribute pages with real demand you actively want ranking — and give those unique titles and copy. Everything else stays as parameters you can control in bulk.

Example: /shoes/waterproof (clean, curated, indexable) but ?color=red&size=10&sort=price (parameters, noindex).

Rule of thumb: Clean URL = a page you'd write copy for. Parameter = a filter you'd block.

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