Face it, the greatest products are still not going to sell if people can’t easily find them, which is why faceted search, or guided navigation, has become the de facto standard not only for eCommerce and product-related websites, but also for many other content heavy sites, like media sites.

Faceted taxonomies integrate better with search, drive filters and sorting and allow customers who know what they want to narrow by what’s important, based on the search terms they use, and without limiting their choice to exactly one item. It also helps those who aren’t sure what they want by allowing them to outline some of the attributes they might want to consider.

More specifically, faceted search lets users refine or navigate to a collection of information by using a number of discrete attributes—the facets. Ecommerce experts today are opting to design faceted taxonomies rather than purely hierarchical taxonomies, and, just like the latter, faceted taxonomies really need to be carefully planned and iterated to ensure that customers have a positive search and navigation experience.

This excerpt is from an article by Chantal Schweizer that was published on AgilityMultichannel.com on June 30, 2021. Read the full article here.