Content above the fold - New Google algo change -

fish · Jan 20, 2012

Worth a read esp. if you are designing new sites.
http://bit.ly/xNhwEB

Retired_member41 · Jan 20, 2012

Another nonsense post from mr cutts.

Just a sneaky way to increase revenues from advertisers.

Jamie101 · Jan 20, 2012

Aaaah.

Might need to make some changes on some of my sites now

Edit - anyone see what someone mentioned in the comments? They said that G are doing exactly what Matt is saying you shouldn't do (loads of adds and little content when you first go to a website/page). They searched credit cards and only one result showed above the fold, it's pretty funny actually.

fish · Jan 20, 2012

Caz said:
Another nonsense post from mr cutts.

Just a sneaky way to increase revenues from advertisers.

That asides, how will it affect sales sites who list lots of product images with links to each item description?

Blossom · Jan 20, 2012

fish said:
That asides, how will it affect sales sites who list lots of product images with links to each item description?

They will be looking at ad services and banner management code rather than just images. Images and internal links will be fine. Images and aff links will always be tough. Manual images with external links will probably be ok too.

It'll be interesting to see whether this applies to Adsense ads. My guess is that if your site only has Adsense, it won't be affected regardless of ad positioning.

Aiden Roberts · Jan 20, 2012

fish said:
That asides, how will it affect sales sites who list lots of product images with links to each item description?

I had a site on page 1 of G for last 6 months, moved it over last week to FSB and it has dissapeared off page 1

, could have something to do with this change?

I have looked and it seems to have 60+ pages in index but god knows where in the index, I am jigging it about a bit in light of the above and will wait to see what happens.

Aiden

stender · Jan 20, 2012

Thats nothing to do with google changes.

Aiden Roberts · Jan 20, 2012

stender said:
Thats nothing to do with google changes.

I am sure you are right so lets see what difference if any this algo change makes.

GreyWing · Jan 20, 2012

Nice to see the fekkers lose 10% of their share price yesterday...

Aiden Roberts · Jan 20, 2012

GreyWing said:
Nice to see the fekkers lose 10% of their share price yesterday...

I wonder if it will make any difference to their plan of killing off affiliates?

Silverz · Jan 20, 2012

One website of mine was effected by this today (was position 1 and 2 for my keyword) one page disappeared and the remaining has now been overtaken by a wiki page, and google images. Will have to look to make some changes. I just wonder if they will take into account adsense or not, and if they do, I wonder why they keep emailing me with 'personalized' messages telling me they I have room on my pages for more ads !!

Blossom · Jan 20, 2012

Silverz said:
I just wonder if they will take into account adsense or not, and if they do, I wonder why they keep emailing me with 'personalized' messages telling me they I have room on my pages for more ads !!

I personally don't think they do. The difference between how Google treats Adsense and how it treats affiliate links is huge - they are polar opposites.

They're all hugely different departments though, and some are kept in the dark. Spam and search quality are completely separate to advertising.

Aegean · Jan 20, 2012

The only way this could work in their algorithm is if Google took account of absolute positioning.

The days of having code 'in order', as it was with HTML, are over. Quite a few of my sites have ads at the top but they are in a div with absolute positioning coordinates, so in the actual source code those divs are all at the bottom. So far none of my sites have been affected.

Blossom · Jan 20, 2012

Aegean said:
The only way this could work in their algorithm is if Google took account of absolute positioning.

I wouldn't underestimate them: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/just-how-smart-are-search-robots

I tend to think of Chrome when I picture how Google is looking at sites, it's probably not strictly accurate but it errs on the side of caution.

afx · Jan 20, 2012

Interesting trying to square this with automated emails from Google saying "hey you should have more adsense on your site than you currently have". The site in question already has prominent adsense above the fold (although it has plenty of content and regular visitors).

I wonder if it's just posturing telling people what they want to hear. Or whether this will only affect sites with adsense above the fold that don't earn the publisher and therefore Google any money. Or perhaps it will be a new earner for Google as it won't be a ranking penalty and instead a smaller publisher cut for ads above the fold.

Google are about bottom line first and foremost -- I don't see them switching to an earn less money algo. Especially when FB on its own is a serious threat to Google's core business model without any of the merger talk.

Aiden Roberts · Jan 20, 2012

Blossom said:
I wouldn't underestimate them: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/just-how-smart-are-search-robots

I tend to think of Chrome when I picture how Google is looking at sites, it's probably not strictly accurate but it errs on the side of caution.

Just read that article-haven't got a clue what it was talking about, way over my head! I think it means Google are liars and know much more about us than we think they do?

If someone could summarise it for me the would be great.

Aiden

Blossom · Jan 20, 2012

Aiden Roberts said:
Just read that article-haven't got a clue what it was talking about, way over my head! I think it means Google are liars and know much more about us than we think they do?

If someone could summarise it for me the would be great.

Aiden

Basically the theory is that whilst people are used to thinking of search bots as glorified automated scripts that can only recognise text and basic HTML code, they actually could be as advanced as an actual browser, but without the bells and whistles a human using a browser would need.

Aiden Roberts · Jan 20, 2012

Blossom said:
Basically the theory is that whilst people are used to thinking of search bots as glorified automated scripts that can only recognise text and basic HTML code, they actually could be as advanced as an actual browser, but without the bells and whistles a human using a browser would need.

To be honest I believed the bots were much more advanced anyway so no surprise too me lol.

damion · Jan 20, 2012

Blossom said:
It'll be interesting to see whether this applies to Adsense ads. My guess is that if your site only has Adsense, it won't be affected regardless of ad positioning.

Still, it’s not hard to easily find sites using Google’s own AdSense ads that are definitely pushing content down as far down on their pages as they can or trying to hide it. Those pages, AdSense or not, are subject to the new rules, Cutts said.

Source

Couldn't find exactly where Danny Sullivan got that from, but it would not surprise if this is what Matt said.

JMOT · Jan 20, 2012

Good SEO practice has always been to load as much editorial content near the top of the code.

Whether you have to use CSS rendering, magic or whatever to make your design looks nice to the user thats always been your choice.

For me, there should always only ever be max of 2 ads above the fold in traditional IAB ad sizes...468x60/728x90 and a 300x250 MPU.

Adsense is shit. Always has been to me. Its the catch all approach for those who cant make a good site about something they genuinely can make money from on a CPA or CPL

Google yet again trying to ram its doctrine both down peoples throats and up their asses at the same time.

Oh wait... now with Google+ my world circles crap it doesnt matter anymore because they are trying to force SEO listings off page 1 entirely at this rate.... time to change folks... and fast.