Google SERPs Diversity Now Only Two Results From One Domain

[engine]

Finally, Google is now restricting SERPs listings to two results ftom one domain.

I've often been critical of one domain dominating the SERPs, so I welcome this move.

[mobile.twitter.com...]

[JesterMagic]

Good. Also glad Google is letting us know a bit more about what these core updates are about. (not that this is something we can control)

I can confirm that this is happening in our niche as domains that once had 3 to 4 listings in a row now have 1 or 2. Most of these listings tend to be from big media brands and a rehash of the same subject but using slightly different keywords. 1 listing would be fine for these lower quality articles.

Still if there are a number of good articles I am not sure why Google doesn't do with articles what they do with forum posts? In the serps they have one listing with the forum topic first with an insert that they feel will answer the questioned. This is followed by 2 to 4 links to other related forum topics that may answer the searchers query as well.

[Dimitri]

SEO "experts" will resurrect sub domains ...

[aristotle]

Actually google used to have this same limit to two domains back in the early days (pre-2006 or there abouts). I remember Matt Cutts talking about how good a policy it was.

I 'm not sure exactly when google abandoned it. I don't think they said anything about it at the time.

At any rate, people here have been complaining about domain crowding for years.

[Dimitri]

I "guess", that Google suppressed the limitation with the rise of Social networks.

With a "normal" site, usually one page will match a given query, excepting for spamers which are creating plenty of variants of the same page, with the hope to flood the SERP.

With Social Networks, there are so much material posted, that it's highly possible that several , "pages" , can "legitimately" match a given query. Let's take the example of Facebook groups. Two groups can be on the same theme, and so both are legitimate to appear in the SERP, for the same query.

[NickMNS]

SEO "experts" will resurrect sub domains ...

There is already evidence that this (or technically a slight variation) will be an effective strategy. If you read through the twitter thread someone raises an example of "indeed" showing up multiple times. Danny Sullivan responds by saying that these are different domains, since they are from different ccTLD's. So clearly it works, Google says it's not only ok and it is expected. Time to buy up all the ccTLD's for your domain name.

[mcneely]

I know it's only been a few days since the announcement broke, so this could explain why we're still seeing certain selected industries being presented twice or three times on pages one, two, and three in the listings.

We'll give it a few weeks to see if there are any changes in these selected industries - I know that a few of these guys aren't going to be real happy about having only "ONE" page being listed.

[Dimitri]

Time to buy up all the ccTLD's for your domain name.

Same strategy as the "big green download button" guys. Who keeps registering new domain names, every day... certainly because of those like me, who block their ads at the level of their root URL...

Time to invest in registrars' stocks :)

[tangor]

^^^ chuckles!

The bad actors will go chasing pennies and nickles while the big fish clean up! :)

[Eryridave]

Let's hope this is properly implemented as I see a number of searches in my niche where the top two results are not only from the same domain but are the same article...

Somehow the intro *and* the article rank separately, keeping us at no 3. If these were two separate articles, it wouldn't be so galling. This would also be much more useful for the user to see three discrete results.

[engine]

Yes, I'm still seeing the results with two, which google explains is more relevant.
Actually, the first result was fine, and i never clicked on the second.

Google needs to tweak it.

[HColor]

The overall relevancy of the results in the SERP could be put on scrutiny, that for sure. Still a reasonable step made by Google. @Dimitri Do you really think that subdomain will help for a website to get 2 or more listings into the top 10 SERP?

[Dimitri]

@Dimitri Do you really think that subdomain will help for a website to get 2 or more listings into the top 10 SERP?

No, I talked about registering plenty of domain names, I didn't talk about sub-domains... and my comment was also ironical/sarcastic. But I am sure that SEO "experts" will start registering several domain names, instead of using a single one to host their search engine-friendly content... :)

By the way, I don't think that sub-domains will help with the new configuration of the SERP... I "guess" that Google is smart enough to detect this kind of trick. I am old enough to remember the time, where "some" were creating sub-domains instead of folders , this was very successful at a time, then it collapsed all of a sudden.

In all events, everything you can do, to artificially try to enhance your ranking, will, one day or another backfire to you.

[mcneely]

I "guess" that Google is smart enough to detect this kind of trick.

I'm also inclined to imagine that the Gorg also looks at the server side shared IP experience as well -- Stuffing a bunch of .com's into a shared IP space all with the same (or very similar) content is something I think is taken into consideration.

[Dimitri]

I'm also inclined to imagine that the Gorg also looks at the server side shared IP experience as well -- Stuffing a bunch of .com's into a shared IP space all with the same (or very similar) content is something I think is taken into consideration.

Yes, however, I guess that "SEO experts" are using Cloudflare , to hide their real IP address or IP range. I have no idea how Google is handling this.

I remember the time where it was the SEO's Holy grail to have IP from different C classes :)