# Sort parameters

Category: [E-Commerce SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/e-commerce-seo/) › [Shop pages & navigation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/e-commerce-seo/shop-pages-navigation/) · Also known as: sorting parameters, sort URL parameters

**Sort parameters** are URL parameters such as `?sort=price-asc` that change the order of items on a list page without changing which items appear. Each sort order gets its own URL, which is why they matter for SEO.

## Why do sort parameters matter for SEO?

Ahrefs counts sorting among the active parameters, which change how a page looks or is ordered, and distinguishes them from passive ones such as tracking parameters. Combined with filters and pagination, sort options can multiply the number of crawlable URLs.

Google's URL structure documentation names shopping sorting parameters as an example of unnecessary URL variations and suggests using robots.txt to keep them from being crawled. Its documentation on faceted navigation says that overcrawling can slow the discovery of new URLs, and that canonical and nofollow are generally less effective in the long term than robots.txt. Ahrefs recommends canonical tags that point to the unsorted page, so practitioners disagree on the best tool.

If parameters are used, Google recommends an equals sign between key and value and an ampersand between parameters. Several values of one key can be separated by a comma.

## Example

```txt
https://example.com/shoes?category=sneaker&sort=price-asc
https://example.com/shoes?category=sneaker&sort=popularity
```

Both URLs show the same sneakers in a different order.

*Diagram: How filters multiply URLs.* Own calculation example. Three filters are enough to turn one category into thousands of URLs. Google describes two approaches, depending on whether the filtered pages are meant for search.

## Related terms

- [URL parameters](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/url-parameters/index.md)
- [UTM parameters](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/utm-parameters/index.md)
- [Faceted navigation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/faceted-navigation/index.md)
- [Filter pages](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/filter-pages/index.md)
- [Canonical tag](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/canonical-tag/index.md)
- [Crawl budget](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawl-budget/index.md)

## Sources

- [Managing crawling of faceted navigation URLs – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/faceted-navigation)
- [URL structure best practices – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/url-structure)
- [URL parameters: a complete guide for SEOs – Ahrefs (secondary)](https://ahrefs.com/blog/url-parameters/)

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Last updated: October 8, 2026
URL: https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/sort-parameters/