Google Updates Search Results Again

Today, Google announced that they have made an update to their search results that could potentially have a pretty significant impact for pharmaceutical SEO efforts. Before today, Google would typically only display up to 2 unique page listings (this does not include SiteLinks) for a single domain on on a given query. What this means is that for some certain queries, “authority sites” could potentially capture a larger portion of the search results and limit opportunities for other websites to be displayed on the first page of results. For example, let’s take a look at a query for “cancer information”. I have taken a screenshot below to illustrate my point.

Note Cancer.org listings

In the results page shown, cancer.org now has 3 of the top 5 primary listings. Prior to this new change by Google, cancer.org would have had one top-level listing plus potentially a secondary (or supplemental) result much like Cancer.gov shows. This change is essentially proving that Cancer.org is considered an authority site when someone searches for the phrase “cancer information”.

This may not have a significantly major impact on search results, however I do think it is noteworthy and should be mentioned. Additional listings on the search results page significantly increases the chances that cancer.org is going to capture that very desired click from the user.