Google Me the Supplemental Index?
Posted By Melanie Prough on April 2, 2009
Well, apparently in amid a rush of criticism from many webmasters, Google has announced that they have married the supplemental and main indexes. Funny, seems to me with the new tweak to the “Host Crowding Algorithm“, they have only moved the supplemental index to our control. Not that this is totally a bad thing, but once again Google has transferred or shared the responsibility for a task, they didn’t do very well. You might remember back in June 2007, when Google shared the “responsibility” of identifying paid links with the webmasters (and general public). Again, this is something Google was not doing very well, so bring in the “posse”!
Don’t get me wrong, I think Google is clearly using their “noodle” here. Its very common, and effective for institutions/businesses to call upon their customers and suppliers to help police various areas within their operational structure and services. It all seems pretty diplomatic to me.
So what does “Host Crowding” and the death of the “Supplemental index” mean to you and your search results? Officially, it means present quality content to your users and you will be listed for the queries you have earned with your relevant content. Un-officially it means I have lost 5 listings for a nice query related to one of my sites! Well, maybe not completely…. So, for example this query, which I used to have 7 related results on page one now only displays 4. Yes 4!
So how is it that I still have 4 results? Well you have only to convince other websites, via your backlinks to provide the listings for you! Get that? So, on page one for this query.. I have 2 of my own pages: SERP 1 and 2…. Then down the page a bit I also have 2 other sites presenting topic rich results for me = 4.
Google really is using their “noodle” huh? So, Google has effectively increased the need for high quality, relevant backlinks, and in the same act forced webmasters to provide very topic related, relevant pages for individual queries. Win, win for Google as they reap the benefits from enlisting us to help increase the value and relevancy of their index!
So get out there and hunt down those highly relevant “one way” links. I think you will find these links will be best provided by “theme or topic” relevant pages, and websites. However, very good directories will provide nice SERPs as well… Although they tend to be a bit more generic and clicked through less.
Go forth and Link young webmaster!
Peace and SEO
Melanie Prough
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