Google Showing Multiple Listings For Same Site?

[GregDixson]

I've been optimizing a small static HTML site and have been working to increase the keyword rankings, yet have always ranked #1 for the company name.

But, I've now noticed the company name is taking more than just the first position - the site is now appearing in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd position (each position referencing a different page of the site).

Great.. who doesn't want to dominate a page of Google! ..But it looks kind of untidy and not usually how links from the same site are displayed.

Is this normal? I'm used to seeing results from the same site grouped under the primary result, but not like this.

any info appreciated

[KaneJamison]

Are you saying that the website is showing up multiple times when you search for "company name" or an unbranded keyword?

What exactly looks bad about the SERP? Are any of the titles or meta descriptions the same?

The "grouped" links that you're referring to are called sitelinks - read more about them here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=47334

[edwardrj]

I don't think he's referring to site links but instead Google's penchant for showing a number of pages from the same site. It's a domain diversity issue. Nothing you can really do about it -- it's out of your hands. Can't really think of any negative implications for folks searching for your business.

[GregDixson]

Hi Kane,

thanks for your reply.

Yea its shows multiple times on a search for "company name" (position 1, 2 & 3)

I guess it doesn't look "bad" in the SERPs, just irregular, and not as elegant as Sitelinks (I momentarily forgot what they were called). Sitelinks show up for a number of other sites that I've made in Wordpress, but this site in question is straight old HTML. Not sure if that matters.

The SERPS look like the ones with the red arrows in this example when I was googling around for a solution. The post explains something about it: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-same-result-same-page-15287.html

My page titles and meta descriptions are unique, but are similar I guess. I have recently switched the Page titles to 'Keyword | Company name' format, when previously they were the other way around - so maybe that has something to do with it? Should I be using 'Company name | Keyword' for the homepage and the reverse for other pages?

[KaneJamison]

Sitelinks tend to take awhile - I think they may need to be "earned" either through increasing branding or increasing general domain authority. Not certain about that, but I don't think they show up for newer sites often. The could be a factor.

I would build up internal links as well as branded links to the site, and I imagine they'll come soon enough. That Google article I linked to gives a small amount of guidance - since you're doing a static site I'd double check these items:

"There are best practices you can follow, however, to improve the quality of your sitelinks. For example, for your site's internal links, make sure you use anchor text and alt text that's informative, compact, and avoids repetition."

For the red arrows in that seroundtable post, that's common for branded searches. It looks junky because the titles and descriptions (IMO) are too similar.

All of that said, I wouldn't personally worry about it for branded searches. If they've made it that far, they'll find you.

"Keyword | Company Name" is fine for your title formatting. Whether the homepage is different depends on your niche and the value of your brand I guess. Overall I'd probably leave it as keyword first unless you've got a great brand that's been built up quite a bit over the years.

[GregDixson]

yeah that's what I was referring to. Indeed there's not really any negative implications as such other than it looks a bit spammy / untidy. If it's out of my control then fair enough, thought I better check though.

[GregDixson]

Yea my concern is that the SERPs are looking a bit junky. I don't mind if Sitelinks aren't present, and there's one result listed, but the multiple results definitely look untidy. If it's a Google issue as spoke of in the SEO roundtable post then so be it.

I'm in the process of building out the internal pages, backlinks and domain authority, so hopefully that will help to earn the more elegant sitelinks. Thanks also for the clarification with the page titles.