One of the more frustrating things for me an SEO is seeing pages with quality content in the supplemental index. Pages in the supplemental index can still rank. However, these pages won’t rank as well as pages in the normal index.

To pull up results for a search query, Google will first choose from the normal index. If it can’t find what it wants, it looks through the supplemental index. Needless to say, if your page is in the supplemental index, you won’t be ranking for many good keywords. The supplemental index is definitely not a good place for pages to be.

How can you get your pages out of this index? Here are a couple things that can help.

Avoid duplicate content.
Hopefully, you don’t have to be reminded of this. Duplicate content is the fastest way to get into the supplemental index. Not only that, your duplicate content pages may eventually get dropped from the index altogether.

Avoid duplicate title tags.
Use unique title tags for each page. Also, don’t copy page titles of other sites. For example, let’s say you have a Honda car site. Don’t use Honda Civic as a title tag. Many other sites are probably using the same tag. Much better is Honda Civic - Reviews, Prices, And Pictures.

Avoid duplicate meta description tags.
Meta tags are not dead. In 2007, they serve a different purpose. Google has modified its duplicate content filters to include the meta description tags. If you’re using a CMS, you may need to hack it to make sure each of your tags are unique.

Get links pointing to the supplemental pages.
These links are called internal, or deep, links. By getting these links, you increase the link authority of your subpages. The higher a page’s link authority, the better chance it has of escaping the supplemental index.

Get quality links.
I know this is a good answer for most SEO questions, but it’s always good to be reminded of the importance of quality links. High PR pages do a good job of staying out of the supplemental index. And the best and quickest way to increase a page’s PR is by getting links from those high PR pages.

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5 Comments to "How To Get Out Of The Supplemental Index"

• egorych said: On 07/27/2007 at 7:48 am

  SEOs know about this nearly for a year. Nothing new…

• andy said: On 08/08/2007 at 12:12 am

  I read a more detailed and informative article about supplemental index. take a look at that

  http://seoz.wordpress.com/2007/07/23/checking-supplemental-results/

• Ernesto said: On 08/13/2007 at 11:14 am

  Nice article!

  But what to do when your site is still listed in the supplemental index?

• Dee said: On 08/13/2007 at 1:15 pm

  Just keep building links to the pages in the supplemental index. Eventually Google has to index them. Good luck!

• Data Entry Services said: On 08/18/2008 at 12:56 am

  Hi Dee,

  I didn’t know there was a supplemental index. I’m going to make sure I do the items you mention above. Maybe that’s what’s holding my site back.

  Thanks!

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