Many argue that Google’s search experience is now broken. Here’s what it could mean for your SEO campaigns.
As we all know, Google makes changes to their algorithm all the time, and it’s hard to tell what they’ll do and when an update will come.
But the latest update—which is being called the domain-crowding update by many—is an especially frustrating one for both SEO experts and searchers. I can almost hear the collective groan of the SEO industry as they wrestle with the implications of the latest changes.
What is domain crowding?
In general, we view domain diversity in search results as a good thing. If you can’t find what you want in the first result you can move on to the next and so on.
In the past, Google has tried to show a varied set of search results, which generally means many results from a variety of other domains.
Since early June, this hasn’t been the case. Many searchers are now finding a series of multiple results from the same domain filling up the entire SERP. Now, we’re not talking about just a few of the same domain appearing here and there: in many cases the same domain will take up more than half of the SERP.
The result of domain crowding
For searchers, the lack of domain diversity results in a poor search experience.
The last thing you want to do as a searcher is to scan through pages and pages of multiple results to find what you’re actually looking for. A few repetitive results may be understandable, but what do you do when you don’t find what you’re looking for in the first result, and the next result is the same site, and the next, and the next?
This is even more frustrating for SEO professionals. It’s almost as if Google is returning the same result-set for a 10-result SERP that they return for a 100-result SERP. The SERPs are cluttered and our rankings are all skewed and pushed down by the repetition of results from the same domains.
Currently, the SERPs affected by domain crowding are completely broken, and there’s nothing we can do about it. All we can do is ride the storm out in hope that Google will fix the issue soon.
Why is this happening?
Although Google has confirmed that they’re looking into this issue. No one actually knows when a fix will occur or what will actually happen.
There’s a very apparent lack of transparency at Google. This is nothing new. However, the issue behind lack of transparency is never as apparent as it is when Google does something that messes with our SEO efforts for no obvious utilitarian reason.
There has been some speculation that the domain-crowding update was intended to create a push toward paid advertising. We’re not convinced that is the case. Google’s business relies on advertising, true, but the success of their advertising product depends on their ability to provide users the results they want when they conduct a search.
What happens now?
In the SEO industry, we work hard with Google to generate content that meets their standards so that we rank high for the queries we’re targeting. It’s frustrating to see Google compromise the quality of their results and our hard work at the same time.
Unfortunately, all we can do is sit back and wait for Google to fix the issue. If they don’t fix it, well, then this can be considered a game changer. It will quickly become important to focus less on landing page content and more on overall domain authority. But, that’s a topic for another post entirely.
In the meantime, at STAT, we’re staying on top of changes like this in the Google SERP, and our clients are too. If you think you’d like our help in monitoring the effect of changes like this for your business, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
