How to Avoid the Supplemental Index

Google represents that being in the supplemental index reflects Web site quality issues.  Hence, good Web site design in general will keep you out of the supplementals. But there are some specific rules of thumb that site developers can follow that will keep them out of the supplementals.

Prevention is always better than cure even when it comes to Web sites.

How to Avoid the Supplemental Index?

General Rules of Thumb for avoiding the Supplemental Index

1. Use unique page titles on each page. This is referring to HTML page title headers. Never repeat the name of the Web site on each page title. The titles must be readable. Avoid keyword stuffing. The <H1> tags should generally be identical with the page title headers. Page title headers are provided for the benefit of computers, while the corresponding <H1> tags are provided for the benefit of human visitors.
2. Use a unique meta description on each page. Never repeat the meta descriptions on more than one page. Descriptions must be readable. Avoid keyword stuffing.
3. Provide at least 200 words of unique content on each page.The exact cut-off is debatable. You want a high content to noise ratio. Noise consists of what is in your webpage template that gets repeated on every page, such as page headers, menus, footers, and sidebars. The lower the word content, or conversely the higher noise level, the more likely you are to land in the supplementals.
4. Present a Web site with a good internal link structure. Each site should have at least a dozen fully developed Web pages each one of which should link to the other dozen pages. Every page on the site should link to the home page, as well as to other pages on your site. The more internal linkage provided on each Web page, the better. Avoid orphaned pages and link structures more than four levels deep.Remember, if you want your internal pages to have good page rank then they must link to each other in some logical and consistent way. Most of your pages should be reachable within three clicks of the mouse.
5. Eliminate duplicate content issues on each page. No matter how noble your intentions, Google’s rule of thumb is: “All duplicate content is bad, no matter how minor.” If you repeat primarily the same content on more than one page or mostly quote from an external page, your page will land in the supplemental index. Avoiding duplicate content is the primary factor for staying out of the supplemental index, when your pages suffer from none of the above issues.
6. Always use 301 Redirects. When redirecting an URL that has changed using 302 redirection will create duplicate content issues that will exist only in the Google listings. In short, using a 302 redirect will land your pages in the supplementals.

Additional Rules of Thumb for avoiding the Supplemental Index for Brand New Sites.

1. Sites Under Construction should ALWAYS be hidden from Google.
2. Present to Google only a Web site with a good internal link structure. Each site should have at least a dozen fully developed Web pages. See comments above on internal link structure. It is extremely important to never submit a site to Google before it has at least a dozen fully developed pages that link to each other.

Additional Rules of Thumb for avoiding the Supplemental Index for blogs.

1. Make bigger Posts – Keep track of word count. Aovid making short quips as much as possible. The smaller the word count the more likely the post will end up in the supplemental index. A good target would be a minimum of 400 words on a post.
2. Avoid Repetitive Features – Don’t repeat the same content and or features on each page. Avoid duplicating the same text in your sidebars.
3. Make Comments – A blog post is expected to have comments. The more the better.
4. Be Active – Blogs are expected to regularly publish new posts. Brand new blogs should be publishing at least one new post each each day.  After you have established a good track record with Google by posting a dozen daily posts, you can gradually taper it off to publishing one new post a week.
5. Must offer pages, as well as posts. See comments above on internal link structure. The more pages available the better. Aim for at least 10 pages.
6. Avoid duplicating post content with SEO Plugins and good SEO use of your robots.txt file. Keep each post from appearing in the Google index more than once.
7. Brand New Blogs should block Google from accessing them. First, concentrate on writing at least ten pages. This blog, for example, has close to ten pages that cover administrative topics, alone, such as “About Us.” and “Email.” Write a few pages on the topics that are going to be covered on your blog. Do not let Google crawl your blog until these core set of pages have been developed properly.

How to Get Out of the Supplemental Index?

Rules of thumb for getting out of the Supplemental Index are actually no different than what was recommended above for avoiding the supplementals. But, be warned. It is a slow process as the supplementals are crawled less frequently, as in almost never.

Additionally,

1. Never try to force Google to crawl your supplemental pages. It will only make matters worst.
2. Pages that fail to respond to the above tactics must be removed from Google 100%. Wait even longer to make sure that all duplicate content issues have disappeared from Google, before resubmitting the pages. Naturally, all of the above issues must also have been corrected. In these situations, the duplicate content issues are in the Google listings for your site rather than on your respective Web pages. So, you have to physically purge the duplicate content from Google before your respective Web pages will be treated fairly by Google. Remember, that in SEO work you are doing battle with a computer algorithm.