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Google Supplemental Index

What is Supplemental Index?

The Supplemental Index only applies for Google. When Google indexes a webpage, it either ends up in the main index or the supplemental index. Websites from the main index are returned for normal search queries. On the other hand, websites in the supplemental index is deemed to be of less importance and hence will not be shown.

There used to be a way to know if your webpages is in Supplemental Index by simplying searching "site:http://yourdomain.com" in Google. Now, when Google introduced the supplemental index, many webmasters were confused initially. After much debate, Google has decided to improve the system.

Webpages that are in supplemental index are almost never returned for normal search queries. Google has now announced that they have overcome the limitations of this system. And they have also removed the tag 'Supplemental Result' from their SERP so there is no way of telling if a webpage is in the supplemental index.

Here is a quote from the official Google Blog on this matter:

The changes we make must focus on improving the search experience for our users. Since 2006, we've completely overhauled the system that crawls and indexes supplemental results. The current system provides deeper and more continuous indexing.

Additionally, we are indexing URLs with more parameters and are continuing to place fewer restrictions on the sites we crawl. As a result, Supplemental Results are fresher and more comprehensive than ever. We're also working towards showing more Supplemental Results by ensuring that every query is able to search the supplemental index, and expect to roll this out over the course of the summer.

How to Escape from Supplemental Index

The removal of the 'Supplemental Result' tag has caused webmasters problems as they cannot tell if their webpages are in the supplemental index and needs improvement. There are many reasons why your webpage can end up supplemental (though you will never find out). Below are some things you can do to prevent this.

1. Get more Backlinks
   

   Google has mentioned that low PageRank (usually 0) is the main reason why most webpages end up in the supplemental index. And the only way to increase PageRank is to get backlinks. Get backlinks from trusted domains, domains that have PageRank of at least 1.

2. Unique Title
   

   Give each webpage a unique title. I seen some websites where the title is the same throughout. This is particularly evident in online stores. Unique title not only boost your SERP postion, it also shows the search engines that your webpages are all different from each other.

   If Google thinks that your webpages are similiar to each other, it will place the less important ones into supplemental index.

3. Unique Meta Description
   

   Meta Description is used to describe a website. Although it does not affect the ranking algorithm of the major search engines, Google still looks at it. Not for ranking, but for displaying this information in their SERP.

   They also look at the Meta Description for similiar webpages. So do give a unique description for each of your webpage. A short two sentence description is good enough. Remember, this is for the human users to read, not for robots. So write in complete sentences and do not spam keywords here.

4. Original Content
   

   If you copied content from others, such as article directories, your webpage becomes supplemental to the web since it is duplicated. With low PageRank and no backlinks, this can combine to give Google the impression that your webpage is of no importance.

   If you have quality backlinks to duplicated webpages, you can get out of the supplemental index. However, it helps to have some original content. Write around 100 words of original content for each webpage can do no harm.

5. Build Deep Links
   

   Your website should not only have backlinks pointing to the homepage. This gives search engines the impression that your website have a hollow shell. That is, only the homepage is valued while the inner webpages have poor content.

   The end result would be that only the homepage is in the main index whereas the rest are in the supplemental index. Work on your deep links. You can submit articles to directories, use social bookmarking or even allow others to use your article (with a link back) on their websites.

That is about all for escaping from the supplemental index. Remember, it takes time to get out of there as you need to wait for the next time Google spiders your webpages. You shouldn't worry about the supplemental index in the long run if you use SEO on your website.