NOINDEX Search Page Results
I guess I'm getting strange in my old age. I actually don't want particular pages of my site "cluttering" search engine results.
The primary offender I am thinking of is my own search result pages in http://FindACar.com.au/
Take for example this search [ford falcon site:findacar.com.au] which at the time of this writing is cluttered with my search engine pages. I actually want my search engine results to appear more like this: http://www.google.com/search?q=ford+falcon+site:findacar.com.au&hl=en&cl...
There are 2 issues here, right off the bat. First, the search engine results pages are actually delivering unique content - particularly in my meta description field, while the actual listings I want displayed are all showing identical content in the meta description field. Add to that many dealers are lazy and just COPY their description for every single vehicle. One advertiser in particular is a primary offender using the text "No deposit finance at www.carloanking.com.au. Credit issues no problem." for their description in every ad.
2nd issue I think is the fact search engines can spider my search results page. I'm thinking about adding <meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow"> to my result pages
I'm hesitant to trial the noindex method at the risk of reducing my traffic - but the consumer inside me keeps saying "if it's good for the user, it's good for you". By removing the clutter of my search results from search engines, and just getting the actual vehicle listed, I'm doing everyone a favour.
Time to stick my balls out. I'm going to try it. You'll see how my results are going by checking out these google search results [ford falcon site:findacar.com.au]. If the page just lists a whole heap of search results from my site, then I haven't made a difference. If instead it displays actual listings, then the experiment is valid.
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Ok - so Googlebot has come and gone. I have reduced the number of my own search pages that appear in Google's Search Results, and ONE of my vehicles appears in the top position for that [ford falcon site:findacar.com.au] search!
My hypothesis is correct. Why aren't more of the real listings being displayed? Google thinks all the other cars are DUPLICATES! Simple as that! I need to setup my meta description tags so they report better results, but then it is up to dealers to make these search results work for them!
So the lesson to take home from this is NOINDEX, FOLLOW on search result pages, or archive pages, or any other page that isn't actually useful to users by appearing in search engine results will help you clean up the clutter, and focus on indexing the pages that matter. PROVIDED that the pages listed in your search results are not duplicating information, particularly in the title, and meta description, I believe this method will help get more visitors to product pages.
My approach to SEO is help people find what they are looking for, don't try and trick users into visiting pages they aren't looking for. By working to eliminate unnecessary pages from Search Engine Indexes, you improve the chances of people finding and visiting the truely worthwhile pages on your website.
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Submitted by Michael Phipps on 30 July 2008 - 2:48pm.Something else I've noticed is that my adsense income has INCREASED (almost doubled) since I did this. So you would expect to see this reflected in my website statistics, in traffic volume, but no, that hasn't actually changed at all.
I made a very subtle change to my design (orderd my front page with vehicles with more relevance, so the page actually stays more static, rather than changing every page load.
My bounce rate has been falling, so my visitors aren't abandoning the front page because it changes. All I can pin it on is perhaps now that my custom search results aren't diluting the keyword value of a page, my site is becoming more relevant...? I really don't know.
The one thing I can atest to, is any time I apply Google principles of doing the best you can for the user experience, that I am rewarded in some way for it. Forget gaming the system. More solid, and long term results come from playing by the rules!
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Submitted by Michael Phipps on 11 August 2008 - 10:43am.Post new comment