Are you 100% sure they're the same URL? Not even one character different (or one has upper-case letters, for instance?).

I have seen this by the way. But it is not Googles fault directly. More like someone figured it out that they have double listing and 301-ed the second page to the first one or vice-versa. I have seen this done on quintuple listings back in 2014 and the more non competitive the SERP niche is the better.

I saw precisely the same thing this weekend for one of my sites at #1 and #2, it made me look twice since I knew for a fact that page is not duplicated.

When you 301, it de-indexes after a bit, correct?

Mine do, why?

When you 301, it de-indexes after a bit, correct?

Google will store the URL as having a canonical version (at the redirect destination), so, it won't appear in search results once that has happened. Do such URLs appear in index counts? It's obviously difficult to say, but I believe (at least sometimes) they do.

@Andy - I have seen this quite often when searching for longtail search phrases or using parameter search queries. It certainly is rare to see this with a common SERP result page though.

Thanks for answering. The keyword I searched for is highly competitive. These two listings were from a hotel review & booking site. They were not 301 redirecting. The URL was actually weird with a combination of numbers, characters, underscores and hyphens and ending with .html extensions. Google shows the URL using the breadcrumbs path which looked nice though. Still not really sure how a site can have consecutive listings for a high competitive keyword in top 2 places.

Oh now I get it. I thought this was coming from the same domain. Now you tell me it is local listing + organic one. This is normal. In fact this is a desired effect for anyone dealing with local SEO. After the latest changes in the local search space it is harder to make a double listing like that, but it can be done. As for the strange url you were talking about, usually that is a tracking parameter or affiliate URL tracker , the usual stuff.

That being said, do not worry. It is normal to see this in the local space.

Now you tell me it is local listing + organic oneNow you tell me it is local listing + organic one

Sorry for using the word 'listing'. I meant to refer the organic placements.

As for the strange url you were talking about, usually that is a tracking parameter or affiliate URL tracker , the usual stuff

They are not tracking parameters for the reason there's no ?, # or =. They are plain yet weird HTML URIs. That's why I mentioned it's ending with .HTML extension. Affiliate URL tracker? Did you mean a non-canonical URL in Google's search results? No, it's not.

Thanks

@shaunm - Oh you are correct! Sorry for the confusion with regards to the URI. That does seem weird indeed. Can you replicate the result by the way?

It's not the same case anymore when I search for the same keyword though the same site is holding the #1 position. I'd better leave it as some kind of Google dance/update which was temporary. Don't think that's manipulative.

We all see oddities from time to time. Most are an algo phart and should be ignored (or more likely a double entry by overworked computers). We only worry about these artifacts if they become permanent, repeatable, and in your face.

Over the years I've seen similar (not many, but the same) not only in G but B and Y, too. Next day, next week, they disappear.

That's interesting. If the page(s) are happen to be top of the funnel pages, then it's going to be a bit confusing in regards to impressions, clicks and CTR - if there's ever going to be a report schedule covering less than a week and so.