Shall Google index a search result?
-
Hi,
I've a website with about 1000 articles.Each article has one ore more keywords / tags. So I display these keywords at the article page and put a link to the intern search engine. (Like a tag cloud)
The search engine lists als articles with the same keyword and creates a result page. This result page is indexed by Google. The search result contains the title of the article, a short description (150-300 chars.) and a link to the article.
So, Google believes, that there are about 5.000 pages instead of 1.000 because auf the link to the search result pages.
The old rule was for me: More pages in Google = better.
But is this still true nowadays? Would be a "noindex, follow" better on these search result pages? (Is there a way to tell Google that this is a search result page?)
Best wishes,
Georg.
-
Hi Alan,
well, I am not affected by Panda - it's a german website. But Panda is arriving soon
Your answer makes sense, I'll give it a try and "noindex" the search result.
Best wishes,
Georg.
-
Georg,
What I communicate as "best practices" to clients is to noindex/follow all on-site search, however you can look at your analytics to determine if you think you're getting enough value out of the current system or if wiping that out will help with long term refinement of your content. The concept for not having those indexed is many less pages would be given much more strength and weight long-term. . Unfortunately there's no exact method to determine if this will be the case in your unique situation.
Given that your search results provide depth of content (not just a bunch of links, but actual, relevant text linking to details pages, I'd be curious to see if any of your site, or specific phrases you were previously found for that led to those search pages were hit by Panda.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Ensuring that Google Display my Meta Descriptions
Hello, I have a few pages that appear in SERPs with the page copy as opposed to the meta descriptions I wrote, is there any way to try & force the meta descriptions to be displayed? Its a WordPress site using Yoast
On-Page Optimization | | jasongmcmahon0 -
WMT Fetch as Google
Is there any benefits in using 'Fetch as Google' in WMT and then submitting for indexing? I have a page which I'm trying to get to rank so far with no luck is it likely to help or could it hinder? Please speak from experience not hearsay 🙂 Many Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | seoman100 -
Catergories not appaearing in google help!
Hi I call upon the seomoz experts again this time regarding getting our categories to show in google when you type in our company name Tidy Books. Ive added 3 pictures 1 of our UK store www.tidy-books.co.uk 2 of US store - www.tidy-books.com 3 of a competitor who has over taken us and had the Google mark up we require. Would some love help some help in the last few months we've lost a few places and traffic is going down Thanks everyone ItiqzWV 6g8e1Zy I2qEJCc
On-Page Optimization | | tidybooks0 -
Google picking up old pages
I recently redesigned a site that had all the keywords it was ranking for going to the home page. Now I have specific pages for each of these keywords but I'm seeing the home page (not the page that, if I do an on page optimization by hand in MOZ gives me an A rating) showing up in the auto reports (assuming pages Google sees for these keywords related to the url) as F's. They're all pointing to the home page. I've redirected the old index.html home page to the new but I suspect the reason is actually these pages (were) ranking for these terms (though none too well - all but one were not in the top 50 and one was 45) because these rankings are all dropping as well. I'm at a loss, with the site replaced, as to how to correct this and tell Google these keyword phrases all have their own pages now. I've dug through this forum and the only applicable answer I can see would be to add these phases to the home page (where they all rank for now) with anchored links to their new (A rated by Moz for these terms when I hand enter them) singular pages? Or is it just a waiting game?
On-Page Optimization | | adworksofboca0 -
Errors when checking W3C HTML after added Google Custom Search
hello, I have added google custome search to my website, and then check with W3C HTML, it report many error.
On-Page Optimization | | JohnHuynh
eg: there is no attribute "enableHistory" <gcse:searchbox-only enablehistory="true" autocompletemaxcompletions="5" au…<br="">or there is no attribute "resultsUrl" and so on ...</gcse:searchbox-only> Has anyone face with this problem, I don't know how to fix it. Please help!0 -
Google Authorship Problems
Hi, I seem to be having a few problems with getting google authors set up on Wordpress. I've set up my G+ account, put the link to my blog http://appointedd.com/blog/ and then registered it on the yoast plugin. However, I'm not sure it's set up correctly and I can't seem to be able to get it to work. I'm hoping a fine someone here has experience in this as I'm a little flustered. thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | LeahHutcheon0 -
Incoming Search Terms
Hi guys, I saw a blog post recently where the author added a list of "incoming search queries" to the bottom of his post, obviously to improve the post's ranking for those terms. On one hand, I suppose it it does help users find that post. On the other, it seems lazy and somewhat dodgy, but I haven't found any opinions on it elsewhere and have not seen this practice in my experience. What're your thoughts? Outright search engine manipulation? Cheers, Carlo SCWYt
On-Page Optimization | | mtgconsulting0 -
Sitemap generator and /index.htm
I use DMX Zone sitemap generator in Dreamweaver. When generating the sitemap, it includes both http://www.domain.com and http://www.domain.com/index.htm. Should the /index.htm be deleted from the sitemap, or will the 301 redirect take care of that? Best,
On-Page Optimization | | ChristopherGlaeser
Christopher0