---
title: Facets
slug: cms-12/docs/facets
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-08-10T15:56:01.000Z
---

Facets group documents based on criteria, such as specific terms or date ranges. Typical uses of facets are *tag clouds* and *faceted navigation*, which let site visitors restrict search results to selected categories, such as product types, price ranges, or author names.

Facets provide aggregated data based on a search query and are requested and retrieved along with regular search requests. By default, the search query scopes facets.

[Elasticsearch](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-aggregations.html#search-aggregations), upon which Optimizely Search & Navigation is built, features several facets ranging from simple to advanced.

The .NET client API in Optimizely Search & Navigation supports facets based on:

- [Filter](docId\:cVbEQzwzGgAvbs-9uX2by)
- [Geographical distance](docId\:EoNSQejLitLFpqPPEztFO)
- [Histogram](docId\:A14osumWg6vwlCO-WOOwX)
- [Range](docId\:JwdrIi7U6xx-ZXBeQV0A2)
- [Terms](docId:7DNDLGNdZBXRv1qqYti_U)

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**
Normally, facets are affected by filters, just like search results. However, via the [FilterHits method](docId:52m5agH56jJB19hIJJdxk), you can retrieve facets without applying the filters applied to search results . Therefore, see the `Filter` and `FilterHits` methods, because there are significant differences between them when working with facets.
:::