Google Flags WooCommerce Add-to-Cart URLs for Crawl Waste
Google’s crawl team has been filing bug reports against WordPress plugins that generate excessive URLs and waste crawl budget.
Gary Illyes, Google Search Analyst, shared details on the latest Search Off the Record podcast. His team identified WooCommerce’s add-to-cart URL parameters as a major source of crawl waste. WooCommerce responded quickly and shipped a fix.
Not all plugin developers have been as responsive. Some action-parameter plugins remain unaddressed, and Google’s outreach to a commercial calendar plugin generating infinite URL paths went unanswered.
What Google Found
Illyes reviewed Google’s internal year-end crawl report with Martin Splitt. Key points:
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Action parameters made up ~25% of all crawl issues in 2025
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Faceted navigation accounted for 50%
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Together, they represented three-quarters of all crawl issues reported
Action parameters like ?add_to_cart=true create new URLs each time they are added. Parameters can stack, multiplying the crawlable URL space. Often, these are injected by CMS plugins rather than intentionally by site owners.
How WooCommerce Fixed It
Google’s crawl team filed a bug report against WooCommerce, highlighting the add-to-cart parameter as a source of crawl waste.
Illyes explained their approach:
“We would dig into where these URLs are coming from, and sometimes you can identify WordPress plugins—like those that add to cart or wishlists—as the source. If the plugin is open source, we file an issue.”
WooCommerce responded quickly and deployed a fix. Illyes praised their responsiveness:
“The good folks at WooCommerce almost immediately picked up the issue and solved it.”
Other plugin developers with similar issues have not responded.
Why This Matters
Google has repeatedly warned about URL parameter issues and formally updated its faceted navigation and URL parameter best practices.
Yet the same problems persist, largely because crawl waste is baked into the plugin layer. Ecommerce sites face a bind: the issue may not be the website owner’s fault, but they are responsible for managing crawl efficiency.
Illyes noted:
“Googlebot can’t determine whether a URL space is useful unless it crawls a large chunk of it. By the time you notice server strain, the damage is already happening.”
Proactive measures, like blocking parameter URLs via robots.txt, remain the most effective way to prevent crawl waste.
Looking Ahead
Filing bugs against open-source plugins is one way Google hopes to reduce crawl waste at the source. WooCommerce’s fast response shows it’s possible, but widespread adoption depends on plugin developers taking responsibility.
The full podcast episode with Illyes and Splitt includes more details and a transcript for those interested.