According to Google, the Supplemental Index is a "completely automated" collection of pages that the Google web crawler considers, for one reason or another, unsuitable for inclusion in Google's main Index.
| Being listed in the supplemental index, however, does not, Google says, affect the page's PR. |
So what's the problem? For one thing, supplemental pages do not appear to be crawled as often as main index pages and seem to follow main index pages in returns. And while the supplemental index has been around for a long time, the number of pages Google is taking out of the main index and putting in the supplemental index has mushroomed in recent months.
But that isn't the major problem. The major problem is that supplemental pages do not contribute anything to the ultimate visibility of your site on Google. For example, let's say you have a hundred-page site with all the pages listed in Google's main index. Suddenly, for no reason you can discern, 20 of those pages disappear into the supplemental index.
Now, let's break those 20 pages down. Ten of them contain old, stale, or repetitive content. They're the type of pages that the supplemental index was created for and had been primarily used for prior to Google's Bigdaddy software upgrade. Or, perhaps, those pages contain a lot of Wikipedia or DMOZ content. While there is no concrete evidence of it, there are indications that such pages are also prime candidates for "supping." Frankly, the fact that those pages are now in the supplemental index doesn't hurt you any - they probably weren't getting you any brownie points from Google's ranking algorithms anyway.
Let's also assume that six of the pages that have been "supped" are primarily order forms, or contain redirect affiliate links, or might be construed as orphans because they've lost their links from other sites.
Though there are no hard-and-fast rules about any of this, or at least no such rules that anyone outside the Google inner sanctum knows, anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that these sorts of pages frequently wind up in the supp index. Again, no big deal, very few people are going to enter your site via an order page and buy something, you want them to start their visit to your site from a product or information
That leaves four supplemental pages unaccounted for. Let's say two are link pages and two are content pages that describe some of the products or services you offer. Now we've entered the Pain Zone. In the main index those four pages -- assuming the links are relevant and from quality sources and the content is fresh and properly seeded with key words -- would normally, on one of Google's rational days, be adding value to your site's return potential. In the supplemental index, they contribute nothing.
That, and pretty much that alone, is the main problem with having pages in the supplemental index. You could in theory have 46 pages of a 47-page site called www.RM--HT.com in the supplemental index and, if the other page was perfectly search-engine optimized, come in first on a search for Rocky Mountain Horned Toads. Or you could have two pages of your ten-page www.GOF.biz site fall into the supp index and see your return position on a search for Georgia Ostrich Farms drop from page one to page five. It all depends on the nature of the pages that go supplemental and their importance to your overall rating.
| A large number of relevant incoming links is the best way to attract customers during those periods when your SE returns aren't what you'd like them to be. |
Analyze the content of all your pages carefully. Do you refresh it regularly? Are you careful not to over seed it with keywords? Does the content reflect and support the headlines, page title, and metatags? Do your links conform to the best-linking practices described in the other articles in the Linking School? Are you using
Remember, despite what you might hear elsewhere, the number and quality of your links are still important factors in optimizing your search-engine returns. Perhaps more importantly, in a time when your PR and number of indexed pages can fluctuate widely from month to month and even day to day, a large number of relevant incoming links is the best way to attract customers during those periods when your SE returns aren't what you'd like them to be.
The next problem to be solved is what to do if some of your critical pages do wind up in the supplemental index. According to Google, "the index in which a site is included is completely automated; there's no way to select or change the index in which a site appears." In other words, don't send Matt Cutts an e-mail begging for relief. Instead, try to figure out what changes you should make to the pages so they tip the scale in favor of the main index the next time Googlebot comes to visit.
In addition to making sure your "supped" pages contain none of the "no-nos" discussed above, you should check to see that you're not publishing the same content at different URLs, add more content and links, refresh your headlines, add or replace keywords, and add relevant subtext and/or captions to graphics.
None of these things is guaranteed to get a page out of the supplemental index, but one, all, or some combination of them have been effective for other webmasters.
Perhaps the most important point to understand about the supplemental index is that having a few pages - or even a lot of pages - dumped in it is not a death sentence. Your website is still alive on Google and can still, if the pages left in the main index are powerful enough, show up prominently in returns.
Discuss this article in the LinkPartners.com Discussion Forums
Other Linking School Resources
| › | NEW! Linking Crib-Sheet #1: Some Basics for Newbies Who Are New to Link Building |
| › | NEW! Five Tips For Enhanced Linking |
