Google search recently released an update to make search results more diverse. As with most Google updates, there was no warning to its release, and it was announced on the search engine’s Twitter account, on June 6th 2019.
What’s changed?
This update was all about domain diversity. Google is now aiming to show no more than two listings from the same domain in search results. This will make results more diverse for searchers and could potentially help sites experiencing cannibalisation issues (when multiple pages from the same site compete to rank higher than each other for the same keyword).
“This site diversity change means that you usually won’t see more than two listings from the same site in our top results.”
This will not always be the case. Google said it reserves the right to show more than two results from the same domain when it thinks it’s relevant. We think this will most likely apply to brand searches. For example, if someone searches ‘John Lewis’ – they will most likely see lots of listings from the John Lewis website in the top results.
What should I do?
As with all Google search updates, it takes a couple of weeks for things to settle down. Our SEO team monitors all our clients’ sites anyway and, if required, we will take action to prevent any negative effects specific to this update.
Is this a good or a bad update?
Generally, we think this update is positive. For non-brand keywords it’s better to have one listing show in search results. This should be the most relevant page to the keyword being targeted. More than one listing appearing can be confusing to potential customers and can also mean a site is competing with itself for visibility.
If you would like to learn more about this update or want to discuss how it could affect your website, contact us.