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SEO Question: What Does “Omitted Results” Mean?

Here’s a good question: what do “omitted results” mean?

Does it annoy you that a listing of yours should appear in Google, but it’s not there? Instead, you get a message that some results have been omitted, asking if those omitted results should be included in the search results.

For example: “In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 8 already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.”

Why are your pages missing the bus? What can you do?

  • Headings (h1, h2, etc.) are important. Use them sparingly as ranking signals. Each page’s header should be different, and there should only be one h1 heading per page.
  • Words in the url are considered, so branding with a generic url is also a problem. Be specific, and include an identifying business name (e.g. cthulusculpture.com vs sculptures.com).
  • Get registered with Google Webmaster Tools. Maybe your content is there, but your site is mislinking. You might have 404s you aren’t aware of lowering your site quality.
  • Look at your content and its quality:
    • Would you trust the information presented on your page?
    • Is this article written by an expert; someone who publishes a lot on the topic?
    • Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site? There’s a thing called “the penny gap”: it’s the audience gap between those who would give you one penny or more, and those who never trust parting with even a penny.
    • Is it poorly written? Google can index for topics and grammar. If you offshored your writing, Google may be able to pick that up.

Things you can do:

  • Sign up for Webmaster Tools.
  • Make sure your HTML uses headings carefully and appropriately.
  • Speak on topics you know a lot about.
  • Check that your content is well-written and grammatically correct.