New Google Search Update: SERP Wants More Diverse Results
Discover how the new Google search update affects your affiliate campaigns
The new Google search update may affect your affiliate results if you ranked multiple times in top results. On June 6th, Google announced that it updated its search results to include more domain diversity. Google’s goal is to show no more than two results from the same domain for a particular query in the top results.
In the past, you might see four or five of the top ten results from the same domain name. Google is aiming to not show more than two results from the same domain with this new Google search update.
According to Google, “A new change now launching in Google Search is designed to provide more site diversity in our results. This site diversity change means that you usually won’t see more than two listings from the same site in our top results.”
Does the Google search update impact all results?
The new Google search update isn’t a definitive rule. Google does reserve the right to show more than two results from the same domain name when they deem appropriate. This might be true for example, for queries relating to your brand or domain name.
According to Google, “We may still show more than two in cases where our systems determine it’s especially relevant to do so for a particular search.” That’s good news for brands who rank multiple times in top results for queries relating to their company or business.
What about sub-domains?
Unfortunately, sub-domains will be treated as part of the main domain. For example, if your blog is held on a sub-domain like blog.domain.com, it will be associated with your main domain, and count towards your two search results limit.
“Site diversity will generally treat subdomains as part of a root domain,” said Google. “Listings from subdomains and the root domain will all be considered from the same single site.”
However, Google may choose to treat certain sub-domains differently. “Subdomains are treated as separate sites for diversity purposes when deemed relevant to do so,” according to a vague statement by Google.
Is the SERP change going to apply to all search results?
No. This new Google search update will only impact core search results, not additional search features like video snippets, image carousels, top stories and other features listed along with web results.
June 2019 Core Update
This search update is unrelated to the June 2019 core update, according to Google, which went live June 3rd. “Finally, the site diversity launch is separate from the June 2019 Core Update that began this week. These are two different, unconnected releases,” according to a statement by Google.
Your analytics and Search Console data could be impacted by both the June 2019 Core Update and the domain diversity update, so how do you know which one impacted your site results?
Look for changes to results that occurred after June 6th for domain diversity impact, and between June 3rd and 6th for the core update.
This Is Not an Update
According to Google, this isn’t an official SERP update, and shouldn’t have as much of an impact on your site performance. “Personally, I wouldn’t think of it like an update, however. It’s not really about ranking. Things that ranked highly before still should. We just don’t show as many other pages,” according to Google employee Danny Sullivan.
Even though the domain diversity change isn’t an official update, it will impact how certain URLs are shown in search results, which may impact your traffic results.
As of today, you will still see more than two search results from a single domain for some queries as Google works towards perfecting the change. “It’s not going to be perfect. As with any of our releases, we’ll keep working to improve it,” said Google.
How does this impact affiliate earnings?
This new Google search update can affect those who dominate for specific queries. If you do rank for more than two pages for the same query in Google, you should keep track of how the Google change impacts traffic.
Study the SERP results to see which pages rank for the same query. If you have one page or two pages that drive more conversions on your affiliate offers, it’s important to prioritize those pages over others. You can change your keyword targeting on the other pages, so you’re driving more traffic to the top converting pages and have a better chance of Google showing those pages in search results.
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