Google has just announced a change in the way search results are displayed on the Google search results page. Aimed at improving site diversity on Google search, the update will prevent sites from appearing multiple times in the top search results. This is a feature that is highly requested by users, according to Google.
Google announced the changes on Twitter.
Previously, Google search could display multiple listing from the same site in the top results. So, more often than not, you would multiple results from the same domain and subdomains. Although the results are relevant to the search keywords used, apparently many users wanted more variety of search results displayed by Google.
According to Google, searches may still return more than two listings from the same website if the search algorithm deemed it highly relevant to a particular search but Google’s algorithm will try to give more diverse search results from now on. The new feature is domain-based. As such it will treat subdomains and their root domains as part of a single website.
While the change may aid smaller or less frequented sites gain more traffic, it will, however, affect forums and other sites with multiple threads including Reddit subreddits which may contain information relevant to the search. Does this mean that these threads will no longer appear on the top search results and users who may need the information will have to dig deeper into Google search results to find them?
Twitter users noted that the update has not been propagating consistently as of yet.
Google still displays too many listing from the same sites. So it’s still not too late for Google to consider how it will treat forums, Stack Overflow, Quora, Reddit, and more which contain relevant threads and perhaps still display them in the top search result depending on their relevance to what a user is searching for. Multiple threads in community forums and websites contain a treasure trove of information and knowledge that may answer the information seekers.
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