Is Google Dropping the Supplemental Index ?

July 11, 2007

Is Google Dropping the Supplemental Index ?

The circuits are buzzing with talk and suggestion, that the Google is killing the supplemental index. It started becoming apparent last week when results supplemental operator searches weren't producing any results for some data centers.

My own sites have seen a HUGE reduction and even complete lack of supplemental results via the "*** -view" operator addition for the supplemental search. The operator supplemental addition "**** -asssdsd" seems to still be working also just depending ion the data center you happen to grab when you push the button. However, in a regular site search operator string I am still pulling supplemental results. You just have to click through the pages to determine where the supplemental results begin and do the math. (site:www.seocog.com) If you run this search you will see 11 results, but the supplemental starts on number 8. See the graphic below for identifying attributes of the supplemental result.

The result above is a supplemental result pulled from my regular site search. So I don't know about all the "getting rid of the supplemental index" talk, no supplemental results appear to be missing....just have to find them differently. I searched another site showing 7 supplemental with "*** -view" and "**** -asssdsd" but the regular "site:" operator shows 253 supplemental which is accurate according to my stats. However, many SEOs think the supplemental is going away. Matt Cutts blogged at SEOmoz on the subject, and Doesn't sound to me like the supplemental index is going away...just the search operators for querying it standalone. Matt said ...

I believe it's good to remove this query because I don't want people to get fixated on Supplemental Results and focus on them to the exclusion of other aspects of SEO.

He also went on to say he would like to kill the whole supplemental tag all together, because of the inherent negativity associated with it. He doesn't like webmasters stressing over the supplemental results.

Supplemental results do not show up in regular search term queries. So if your page is in the supplemental there is a probably a reason. Some have suggested that pages sometimes go there at first launch for a bit to await regular indexing. I have never found this to be true. If your page is in the supplemental, there is usually something wrong unless it is a page or page type known to be"unhelpful" to results...like sitemap.xml, users do not need this in regular results. We need to see it so we know Google has picked it up, but average users have ZERO need for it. Duplicate content is probably the biggest reason, in which case Google just picks a page and indexes it..then dumps the other in the supplemental. This can even be your OWN duplicate content, like having duplicate tags on pages, or even whole paragraphs the same from page to page. I wish Google would release the duplicate percentage that causes a duplication flag.

Google has always claimed that being in the supplemental was not a bad thing, but in this Webmaster's opinion has NEVER provided and supporting evidence of a tangible nature for us to believe them. So inherently webmasters will continue to stress.
If you have anything to add, comment away.

Peace and SEO
Baby

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