Google is expanding its use of multi first from same site results when it returns listings and this may be forcing your site off the first page or deeper into the index.

The way this new feature works is that when someone makes a search on Google a new algorithm will decide which result is the most important for the searcher.

When Google decides that a specific site has the best answer then Google will return more search results … even unwanted search results from the same site.

No matter how you look at it the act of favoritism to the first and primary site “Domain” Google selects will force other results down the page.

When most people make searches they want a selection of answers and authorities to select those answers from. If you were searching about a product you want to buy or a news story you may be presented with four in a row answers from sites you don’t like or you may feel that other answers are not worth looking at.

Not to mention that paid links will also be taking up space.

Is this reasonable?

I don’t think it is the best practice but it will be interesting to see if anyone even notices. In google’s example a new search will return four pages from the primary domain where they believe your answer is located at.

It does not return four possible answers from the same domain

It could be returning their about page or directions page or any number of limitless pages you don’t care about and don’t need to view to get the answer to your original search. Basically its fluff and crap you just don’t need.

Whats kinda insane in the announcement of this change in August on the Blog page they make the following statement about an example search.

[Prior to today’s change, only two results from www.amnh.org would have appeared for this query. Now, we determine that the user is likely interested in the Museum of Natural History’s website, so seven results from the amnh.org domain appear.]

Yes thats right even if your site was the correct place for google to send someone the person making the search has now been flooded with 7 pages to a single domain.

The fact is people don’t search by domain in this way.

This is pure and plain favoritism in a mathematical equation. If people want a list of pages or answers from a single domain they have the option of going into the advanced settings for search and limiting the search or simply by adding site:thedomain.com return search results from a single domain.

When the first SEVEN results are from a single domain in a general search it does not take into account all of the possible other sites where a similar or even better answer may be found….

In other words its not just the fact that one site may have the best answer … its the fact that all other possible answers are forced down seven results… and results that may be web pages of floor plans to their urinals. … its obscene.

You search f117 nighthawk and google returns a page full of results from the Airforce … well great.. but maybe just maybe there are a few pages on  Lockheed’s site or on a pilot’s site or many other places where you can get details you are interested in…

I don’t know about this new result strategy … but I hope it is implemented very sparingly or our searches will endup filled with crap.