Supplementals - getting them to return to normal

[Pico_Train]

I might be repeating something here but a site I take care of has gone pretty much completely supplemental.

How do I get the pages back in?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[sem4u]

To repeat again, you can't do anything about supplementals. They can not be "recovered". What you can do is have both a normal listing and a supplemental listing for the same URL.

I have to disagree with this. I have got a number of pages back to normal status, mostly by beefing up the content and then waiting...

[Just Guessing]

To repeat again, you can't do anything about supplementals. They can not be "recovered". What you can do is have both a normal listing and a supplemental listing for the same URL.

I have to disagree with this. I have got a number of pages back to normal status, mostly by beefing up the content and then waiting...

That does not conflict with what steveb says. Getting a page back to normal status means getting a normal listing for it. But, as steveb says, the supplemental listing still exists - unseen, except with a site: -www search, or until the normal listing disappears again.

[Halfdeck]

That's exactly what happened after the BD fall out: dropped pages from the main index revealed a huge number of supplemental listings which were always there. As someone else mentioned, a steady link building campaign is probably the most effective method. Fixing title/description tags will prevent new pages from going supplemental, but that by itself won't help get them back into the main index. I also hear Supplemental bot comes around every few months, which isn't all together encouraging.

[sem4u]

So a page can be supplemental even if it is listed as normal? Forgive me if I am wrong ;)

Where is Googleguy when you need him? :)

Supplemental bot? Has anyone seen this?

[g1smd]

Yes it can, read my post back a page or two in this thread...

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Just Guessing]

Also Matt Cutts has said many times in his blog that the main index and the supplemental index are independant. For example:

Some site owners over at WebmasterWorld have been discussing an issue where on Bigdaddy data centers, the site wouldn’t be crawled as much in the main index. That would result in Google showing more pages from the supplemental results for that site.

Having pages in the supplemental index is not a problem.

Not having pages in the main index is a problem!

Seeing supplemental pages is a symptom of not having the pages in the main index - it is not the cause.

[jenkers]

I've added links to inner supplemental pages from other sites of my own. The few pages that I've done that to have come back from being supplemental. Of course - takes a little while of watching as G does not always index the link pages straight away.

[steveb]

"Having pages in the supplemental index is not a problem."

That part is wrong. Having pages in the supplemental index is a major problem. They are like a cancer on the back of any "normal" indexed page. You can't do much of anything about them though. Google just doesn't know how to get rid of the cancer without killing the patient.

[g1smd]

Some Supplemental pages are a problem - not all.

[Just Guessing]

True - I over-simplified, as usual.