What are supplemental results?

Google has two content indexes. Supplemental results are the B-list. As Google explains, there are fewer restrictions on the supplemental index.

But supplemental results show up after results from the main index. Also, Google doesn’t regularly update the content in the supplemental index. In other words, it’s not somewhere you want your pages.

Jim Boykin even coined the term “Google Hell” for this index. We clearly want to keep your pages out of there.

Are my pages in supplemental results?

A quick way to check your site is to enter this search at Google (instead of “example.com” enter your site’s name, such as “google.com”):

site:www.example.com * -asdf

You should now see some pages that say “Supplemental Result”

How to get out of Google’s Hell

Link to your pages. A page without a link to it is considered “orphaned,” and Google doesn’t look too kindly upon that. Spread the link love around your own site and get links from other sites. Don’t just focus on the home page, since every page needs its own Google juice. Google’s own Matt Cutts claims this is the best way out of supplemental results.

Remove duplicate content. To be on the A-List, you need unique content. If you stole somebody else’s content, shame on you. If you’re duplicating your own content, stop. WordPress users should use post excerpts everywhere.

Hunt down copiers. Somebody else might be duplicating your content, getting their own page in the A-List. You can use a service like Copyscape to find infringers and shut them down.

Put your robots.txt to work. This file talks to search engines. It can tell Google not to index parts of your site that might contain duplicate content, such as print versions of articles. In addition, there are several WordPress pages you might want to block.

Add more content. Pages with little or no content can end up in supplemental results, because Google doesn’t think they’re valuable. Beef up the content, impress Google, and provide more value to visitors.

Direct all requests to www. For most servers, “domain.com” and “www.domain.com” bring up the exact same page. Google could consider this duplicate content, since two URLs bring up the same page (for your entire site). A simple server tweak can redirect all requests to either www or no-www.

Write unique title and meta tags. If every page of your site is titled “My Site,” you’re not as well positioned for the A-List. Tailor every title, description, and keyword tag to the actual content for each page.

Make your site shallow. How many levels deep is your site? In other words, how many clicks away from the home page does it take to get to the lowest peon web page? If it’s more than 2 or 3, you’re not passing enough link juice to your pages. Simplifying the architecture will please Google and your visitors.

Use search-friendly URLs. Google isn’t a fan of long, complicated URLS. Make them reasonably short and actually readable. Instead of “domain.com/?adfasd=09098″ use “domain.com/page”

Report a page to Google. Andy Beard took an interesting approach to supplemental results. He reported one of his own pages to Google as a paid link. It ended up pulling all his pages out of supplemental results.

Create a sitemap & submit it. You’ve got to tell Google where your pages are, especially if you’ve changed things following these tips. Make a new sitemap and submit it for Google to index. You’ll find the webmaster tools helpful with this.

Any more questions?

What have we left out of this guide? Is something not clear? That’s what the comments are for.

We’d love to talk over issues you might have and help other people with supplemental results problems. Let the conversation begin.

SEM’s come in many price ranges, all the way from a $50/hour consultant to $500/hour consultants. Many won’t even give you a price until you’ve discussed your needs. You should ask the following questions of any SEM you talk to.

1. What specifically will you do for our company?

If this SEM guarantees anything, move on, immediately. Anyone with any sense knows that there is no way to guarantee anything in marketing. They definitely can’t guarantee that they will get you to a certain place in organic search results.

Correct answers could include improve branding, hopefully gain search engine positioning, build links, spread articles for distribution, write a press release, make sure your site is optimized, write linkbait, etc.

2. What kind of time frame are we looking at?

There is no way to know how long this will take. Most SEM’s will give you a range. An acceptable range is anywhere from 3 months to 3 years. This should be based on your competition online, keyword difficulty, and amount you’re willing to spend.

When the SEM you’re looking to hire answers, ask him/her to explain why they think that time period is sufficient.

3. When will we begin to see results?

If your SEM starts off with, “There is really no way to be exact, but…” you might be in good hands. As with question #2, there is no way to know when results are going to be seen. If the competition is lacking, you could show up for your company name within 1 month. If competition is fierce, or your company name contains a keyword (IMakeJewelerly.com has too many keywords, and would take some time.) it will take longer.

4. Why can’t we handle this in-house?

You can’t and you know you can’t, that’s why you’re hiring someone. However, their answer will give you insight to the amount of knowledge the SEM has. If this answer confuses you and he uses terms like Page Rank, SERP’s, API’s, quality score, sandbox, etc., don’t worry.

5. What other companies have you worked with?

If they haven’t worked with anyone, that isn’t necessarily bad, but you need to find out what makes them think they are qualified to handle your companies online presence.

6. Can you show us some results you’ve achieved?

Any good SEM has at least one or two keywords in the top 10 on Google that he/she can show you. If he says, “Well, I don’t have any results you can see…” be afraid.

If you ask those 6 questions, you’re on the right track to hiring a SEM expert!