Where will the ads go?
The adverts that you’ve been used to seeing at the right hand side of your page with soon be no more. Instead, these paid ads will appear at the top and the bottom of your results page.
Though this will reduce the number of ads on the SERP, Google says that it may increase the number of adverts shown on the results page from three to four if the query is 'highly commercial’.
What does this mean for users?
Moving the ads from the right hand section of the screen to the main results area will bring the experience of desktop users broadly in line with that of mobile users. Though as Google may use the free space to display Product Listing Ads or PLAs, desktop users are unlikely to notice a dramatic difference.
What may bother some users more is that they’ll need to scroll down further to get to the organic ads, and will have fewer non-paid ads visible per page.
How will the changes affect businesses?
By reducing the space available on each page for non-paid ads, Google will make the fight for organic space even more fierce. This will force businesses to focus heavily on their SEO if they want to ensure they still achieve a good page ranking.
Businesses that want to maintain their position will need to work on improving the quality of their site. They’ll need to ensure it’s ready for the mobile web, work on the quality of the written text and make sure that all of the site’s content is relevant, useful and easy to find.
Why change?
The main reason that Google is changing its page layout is that it’s seen an increasingly poor click through rate for these right hand ads. By changing the layout and placing more ads at the top of the main results section, the company hopes to improve click through rates and boost its income in the process.
With the roll out now complete, users and advertisers will need to get used to a new layout and a new way of working.
If your website needs a face-lift or you want to improve the quality of your web presence, get in touch with us today.
