Google nonetheless says that you just should not use commas, brackets, or different non-standard URL encoding for faceted navigation

Google’s John Mueller confirmed that the search engine company’s 2014 guidelines on faceted navigation still apply today – don’t use non-standard URL encoding. That means don’t use commas, brackets, or other non-standard URL encodings in your URL structure.

Instead, use ampersands, equals signs, dashes, or other supported and standard URL-encoded URLs for your fascinating navigation. This guide is listed in Google blog entry from 2014, here is a screenshot:

John continued Twitter it’s “still a bad idea” to use non-standard URL encoding for this purpose:

Yes, still a bad idea.

— 🐄 John 🐄 (@JohnMu) January 11, 2022

I still see a lot of websites using these methods – I wonder why…

forum discussion below Twitter.