Google’s Search Liaison has announced a "change" that aims to reduce multiple site listings in search results, meaning you’ll usually see no more than two pages from the same site. This is called the Site Diversity Change. It’s a change in how Google displays web pages in search results but does not affect website rankings.
Site Diversity Change Takeaways
1. Not Part of June Broad Core Update
Although this change was launched around the same time as the June 2019 Broad Core Update, it is not part of it.
2. Not an Update – It’s a Change
Google emphasized that this is a change, not an update. Danny Sullivan explicitly stated that in his opinion, this is not an update since it involves no changes to the ranking algorithm.
Some people have a broad definition of an update, including any change that affects the display of search results. By that definition, even changing the number of ads shown before organic search results could be considered an update, even though it does not affect the ranking algorithm.
3. Site Diversity is Not Across the Board
The diversity change doesn’t affect all search results. Some will continue to show more than one result from the same site if Google considers it relevant.
In my view, when Google uses the term "relevant," it could be beneficial to understand it from the user’s perspective. SEOs often consider web page relevancy in terms of a search phrase. However, it often makes more sense to consider the relevance to the user conducting the search.
When viewed in this light, Google’s use of "relevant" makes more sense, as user satisfaction with seeing multiple pages from one site may justify their continued display.
4. Subdomains Will Be Treated as Part of the Site
Subdomains will generally be treated as part of the main domain, but not always.
Original statement from Google Search Liaison:
"Have you ever done a search and gotten many listings all from the same site in the top results? We’ve heard your feedback about this and wanting more variety. A new change now launching in Google Search is designed to provide more site diversity in our results.
This site diversity change means that you usually won’t see more than two listings from the same site in our top results. However, we may still show more than two in cases where our systems determine it’s especially relevant to do so for a particular search.
Site diversity will generally treat subdomains as part of a root domain. Listings from subdomains and the root domain will all be considered from the same single site. However, subdomains are treated as separate sites for diversity purposes when deemed relevant.
Finally, the site diversity launch is separate from the June 2019 Core Update. These are two different, unconnected releases."
Google’s Danny Sullivan Reveals Site Diversity Launch Date
Google’s Danny Sullivan, from his Twitter account, mentioned that the change began on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2019.
He tweeted: "It started a little bit about two days ago but went fully live today. Personally, I wouldn’t think of it like an update, however. It’s not really about ranking. Things that ranked highly before still should. We just don’t show as many other pages."
Google’s Danny Sullivan clarified the launch date of the site diversity change, explaining why it’s considered a change, not an update.
