Hello, I'm Dan Thies. I've been writing about, teaching, and practicing search engine optimization for over 12 years.
In spite of what you may have heard, SEO is very simple. If you don't believe that, then you really need to read my book! It's only 100 pages long, and it's free.
Google "Hides" The Supplemental Index
We knew it was coming. Rumors have been flying for weeks… and here it is:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/07/supplemental-goes-mainstream.html
Google has decided to stop showing the "Supplemental Result" label on search results… because the SI is changing to the point where it's no longer useful or relevant to label search results.
For now, the hack that SEOFS member Mike Belasco posted last week still works – do a site: search on Google like this:
site:www.domain.com/&
Just add slash/ampersand and, voila, there are your supplemental pages – without the label of course.
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Comments on Google "Hides" The Supplemental Index
I had seen this supplemental hack a few days ago, but I think the results are dubious at best. Here's why.
I just happened to save all my supplemental results for off-line review just before the "supplemental" disappeared (like 2 days before). After all the hoopla settled down a bit I tried the & hack and the results were off by many. Is it possible that in that short period some of my pages came out? Perhaps. But because some of them have been stuck there for a very long time, I'm suspicious.
However, an associate and I were talking about his brand new site (read: not anywhere near finished yet, but visible) and the number of pages in the supplemental before the whack. Just yesterday we were using the hack against his site and for him the results were close… for me?, I got no results, zilch, nada, nothing. Trying again today ended with the same result, leaving me to question the validity of any results from the hack.
Dennis, I don't expect this hack to last long, and it could very well be on the way out already.
However, when I use it for the SEORL site, I get the exact same 7 pages that were labeled as supplemental a week ago: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.seoresearchlabs.com%2F%26
I do 2 searches one with the & and one without, You can get the amount of pages that are added to the & results and these all my indexed pages, So actualy what I figured out that the list of the pages are in the order where "good" pages come first , So when I check in which position my first "Send Box" page is ,I can assume how much pages I have well indexed.
John
If they do shut this one off, there's still the phrase search test that we can try.
I have tried this site:www.domain.com/& and it's showing the pages that are in supplement indexing without any SI label. I really appreciate if you let me understand the logic of /&.
That's what you would expect, Amit. That search hack has been showing the SI pages, but Google no longer shows the "Supplemental Result" label on any search results.
Dan, Thanks for your reply. But I want to understand why we are using /& operator. Do these operators have some significant role?
We're using this hack with the ampersand because it happens to be showing SI pages right now. It's not a documented feature, it's a hack that just happens to work.
Before that, it was a site: search with *** -lglsdhglkh added. No particular significance to that either, other than that it worked.
Thanks Dan.
Here's something odd: the & hack shows 9 pages out of 50 on my site. Most of them I am not at all surprised to see there. But one is very strange: it's the only page on the site with a PR4 (instead of 1,2 or 3 like everything else – the home page is a 3), and it's the page with the second-highest number of incoming external links, after the home page. It's #1 in Google for terms like "buy used lego" – out of "over 2 million" results.
Makes me wonder if the hack is still working?
I'm having 2nd thoughts about the PR4 on that page. That's what the SEO toolbar shows but I know that could easily not be correct, and G Webmaster Tools shows that page as my highest PR for May and June… but the home page as highest for July.
One could go batty about this stuff!
Now the /& is completely gone. When you do the 2 searches both results are the exact same, giving you no indication which pages are "in" or "out". Any clues on how to make sure that all of the pages in a site are truly counting?
Maybe someone will come up with a new hack, Robert. Tomorrow's newsletter will be all about internal linking and site structure. It's about to get a lot easier.
I don't know Robert, /& is still showing different results for me than /*. Seems to be working correctly.
Looking forward to the new article Dan…all I've been thinking about is internal linking and site structure since I've read your book. It was a big eye opener. I didn't realize how that can really improve or hinder your site's success when it comes to PR.
Paul
Help with the supplemental index!
At http://www.mapelli.info/tools/supplemental-index-ratio-calculator/ our site shows an 89% supplemental rating, with 89 pages in the main index and the rest in supplemental. We've tried the /& suggestion, but can see the pages in supplemental. Any suggestions?
Thanks for the help -
Just began reading the ebook. Read two other ebooks before this written by different authors, but this one good.
Kudos!
Does anyone know if that tool mentioned above is accurate?