Google normally doesn’t like internal SERPs within its SERPs. Yet, we stumbled upon a strange phenomenon: an internal search results page was indexed instead of a dedicated category page. To make things even stranger, this internal search results page ranked remarkably well on the first page of Google. So we started to dig into it in order to find the underlying reason. And we found it.

1. SERPception: story of an
indexed internal search
results page
Csaba Szabo // Klikkmánia
BrightonSEO 2021

2. Who is this guy?🤔
SEO manager and team
leader at Klikkmánia Ltd.
On the SEO field for 2 yrs

3. Sometimes we SEOs see some
quite unexplainable phenomena..

4. It takes just a little bit of...okay, a
TON OF analysis

5. ...but at some point we finally see
it😌

6. The problem: why??
Dedicated
category page
Internal search
results page

7. The client: a Hungarian job posting
site

9. Primary source of organic traffic: list
pages ( = category pages)

11. One day...

12. Focus keyword: ‘diákmunka’
(ENG: student work,
student job)

13. A ‘fat head’ keyword
Avg. monthly searches: 22 500
(HUN market)

14. Target audience: high school
students (16-18 year-old users,
Gen Z mostly)

15. Here it is!

19. Why was it a problem for the
client?
A: Less direct control over
the page (internal linking,
highlighted jobs etc.)

21. Why bother?
301 redirect?
Canonical?

23. The Analysis: pagespeed and
indexation

24. I.S.R.P. Category p.
(Internal search results page)
23/100 12/100

25. IMPORTANT! The site didn’t
have a sitemap at the time of
the analysis.

26. Which SEO elements WEREN’T
the root cause?
No noindex tag
No robots.txt exclusion
No nofollow tag

27. PLOT TWIST
The category page was actually
indexed…🤦‍♂
...but generated zero traffic, and
wasn’t ranking for the focus
keyword at all.

29. = ‘kfc order kecskemét’
= ‘kfc opening
szigetszentmiklós’

30. Why did Google deem the
internal search results page
more useful for the target
audience?🤔

31. The Analysis: content

32. Category p.
I.S.R.P.
173 169
Number of available student job
offers?
V

33. I.S.R.P. Category p.
# of times ‘diákmunka’ kw
appeared on the page?
29 times
95 times

34. # of times ‘diákmunka’ kw
appeared in the H2 headings?
I.S.R.P. Category p.
4 times
20 times

36. TF-IDF score for ‘diákmunka’
I.S.R.P. Category p.
0.58 (avg.: 0.54)
0.73 (avg.: 0.54)

37. Was there any content about
student jobs in general?
I.S.R.P. Category p.
Yes
No

38. The Analysis: other relevant
(non-SEO) elements

39. Category p.
I.S.R.P.
Yes No
Was the query highlighted in the
available job offers?

41. Category p.
I.S.R.P.
Yes, some Yes, a LOT
Were there any internship offers
present?

42. Why the presence of internship
offers is a problem?
A: different target
audience !!!
(High school students vs. university
students (20-23 year-olds))

43. The Analysis: backlinks

44. I.S.R.P. Category p.
Page Authority (Moz)
Trust Flow
31/100 33/100
0 23

45. I.S.R.P. Category p.
# of backlinks (Moz)
# of backlinks
(Majestic)
4 11
0 14

46. Let’s revise the situation from
the algorithm’s perspective!

47. Users are looking for
available student jobs, as
many opportunities as
possible
Which page will Google
pick?
Users: Gen Z, high school
students (age: 16-18)
Mobile savvy + notoriously
impatient, especially when it
comes to pagespeed
Which page will help the
target audience more?

48. I.S.R.P.
Category page
Less available job offers
The focus kw appears 29 times
H2 = a job offer - the query
appears 4 times
H2 = a job offer - the query
appears 20 times
The focus kw appears 95 times
Slightly more available offers
The page loads slowly
on mobile
The page loads slowly on
mobile, but slightly faster

49. I.S.R.P.
Category page
Less available job offers
The focus kw appears 29 times
H2 = a job offer - the query
appears 4 times
H2 = a job offer - the query
appears 20 times
The focus kw appears 95 times
Slightly more available offers
The page loads slowly on
mobile
The page loads slowly on
mobile, but slightly faster

50. So all in all, why did Google pick the
internal search results page over the
category page?

51. Google picked the internal search results
page, because in the algorithm’s logic (!)
the target audience has more and
better opportunities of finding a job on
it than on the category page. Plus, it’s
slightly more user-friendly.

52. How could it happen? - clash of
algorithms
Internal ranking algorithm
Internal search algorithm relevancy matching
maximizing the
business goals

53. I.S.R.P.
Google

54. What did the client do?
A: they simply changed
the link _(ツ)_/¯

55. The moral of the story

56. Thank you! :)
csaba.szabo@klikkmania.hu
@csab_csabimir
www.klikkmania.hu/en/
/in/csaba-tamas-szabo