Direct answer
Facets should support user decisions without automatically turning every parameter combination into an indexable landing page.
Practical steps
- Inventory filter dimensions and combinations.
- Select only durable demand-backed landing pages.
- Make non-owners discoverable to users without multiplying crawl paths.
- Align canonicals, links, sitemaps and parameter behavior.
Common mistakes
- Indexing every combination.
- Using robots alone to fix duplicates.
- Removing useful filters from users.
Limitations
- The right model depends on catalog and demand.
- Large sites need log and crawl evidence.
Primary sources
- Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content — Google Search Central; 2025-12-10; 2026-08-14.