Twice ! _ some may have been at the top of the results, just below position zero. Situations like this were extremely advantageous for organic traffic; the more territory you occupy on the results pages, the more exposure you have, and that can potentially multiply your click-through rate. Taking those spots at the top of the results page was marketer’s heaven… And note I said it was . Now , Google’s most recent update included a cleanup of the first page of search results. Urls listed at position zero with a featured snippet no longer appear anywhere else on the first page. This debugging has been called deduplication ( deduplication ). The goal, in essence, is to slim down the search results so that the user is presented with relevant information in a clearer way. After all, from the user’s point of view.
Seeing the same url ranked
Twice on the same page is redundant and pushes another relevant (albeit competing) url to the next page. In short, users may like the update; to marketers, not so much. Beware: an unexpected side effect of the update is affecting some sites! Along with this update, google may have inadvertently caused a spike in blood pressure to marketers around the globe! Along with this update,
Google may have inadvertently sent marketers around the world into a hypertensive spike! For quite a few websites (and you might want to pay special attention to this point if you own a featured snippet as well as the knowledge panel on the right side of serps ), some marketers reported a sudden drop in page one rankings. To page 2 of the search results many watched in dismay on their google search console as their urls, previously ranked at position 1, 2 or 3, dropped to position 11,
despite owning the featured snippet
If you’ve seen something like this, you can probably relax and take a deep breath: all reports indicate that google is already working to rectify this situation and that your rankings will return to their former glory. Relevant information posted on the google search liaison account to cover all the bases, I’ve compiled a few additional factors to consider: the introduction of deduplication was global : as I said before, there are some anomalies to fix. If you were affected, please keep an eye on your search console and actively monitor for the expected fix this week. Deduplication does not affect video snippets : however, given the error that came up with knowledge panel deduplication , I would recommend keeping an eye on these rankings as well. The idea is that deduplication does not affect either top stories or interesting finds . Deduplication will not affect search console performance reports :
sites that still own the featured snippet, but have lost the number one organic position,
will still be reported in the number
one ranking position. #phew the conversation and q&a continue, so i recommend following them on google’s search liaison account at @searchliaison .
What’s next, we know that Google periodically releases changes to improve search B2C Fax results for users. Whenever a major update to the core algorithm is released. Our recommendations invariably include generating high-quality content and providing helpful answers to your audience’s queries. And this time it’s not the exception. My advice is to stay the course and focus on creating valuable content for your audience. This update may have forced you to lose positions in your rankings, but follow the example of Google and adapt your strategy to the users who search for your products or services. And (perhaps most importantly) don’t stop asking questions to fully understand everything related to this update (and, for that matter, all the ones that come in the future). Follow the conversation on search liaison or ask us directly.
