News of a further update to Google’s search algorithm will undoubtedly have many bloggers, webmasters, internet marketers and sploggers quaking in their boots.
If Panda didn’t get you, and this one does, it could mean a massive drop in income.
The new page layout algorithm is aimed at websites and blogs that display too many ads above the fold, making it difficult for visitors to find the content they are looking for.
Frustration, anger and complaints from web users have forced Google’s hand on this one. And for most people it is a good move.
This is what Google says on the blog post announcing the update:
As we’ve mentioned previously, we’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s difficult to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don’t have much content “above-the-fold” can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.
There is no help from Google about the level of ads it deems excessive. This is something we have work out ourselves.
It shouldn’t be too hard for most us, and if your stats take a nosedive today you can bet your bottom dollar you’ve been hit by the new algorithm.
The irony of this is that AdSense (a Google product) is almost always the ad used on sites that display too much advertising in places where people expect to see content. It’s good to see Google taking positive steps to banish MFA (made for AdSense) sites and others who ruin the user experience by placing too many ads on one page.
The number of sites affected globally is, Google says, about 1%.
What can you do if you are hit?
Simple. Completely remove the ads or change the layout of your page(s) so the screen real estate above-the-fold (the part of the screen visible without scrolling) is more user-friendly.
This is an algorithm change and not a manual penalty so your site should come back into the results some time over the next few weeks.
User-friendly approach of Google’s algorithm is always welcome but I don’t understand when Matt says that websites with less content above-the-fold will be affected. My concern is for Artist/Band/Music websites in which larger images and videos are displayed above-the-fold and this is also for better user experience! There is no other way to do this on such websites. Will these sites also be affected by this layout algorithm update. I’ll be glad to get an answer from Google in this regards and some tips that can help such websites perform better despite this update.
I don’t think the sites you describe will affected by this new algorithm. Google is going after sites that display more adverts than content above-the-fold, and not those that are image heavy. Sites that are advert free (and always have been), have nothing to worry about. Any change in rankings, be they positive or negative, will not be because of the new page layout algorithm.