Google Removes Right-hand Side Ads
Google is always constantly testing and improving AdWords and recently, they have presented a conclusion of some of those tests by confirming that they are moving away from showing ads on the right side.
This means that Google now just shows ads at the top and bottom of the search results page. At the top (if the search query is highly commercial), you will see four paid search results followed by organic results and nothing on the right. Weird right?
It has been said that the empty space will be replaced by Shopping Ads.
Why the big change?
There have been many speculations as to why Google would make such a big change and we are sure that there are many factors that influenced the decision. With that said, it would still be naive of us to say that this move was not commercially driven.
And of course, this will affect the organic search results as this means that they will be pushed further down and almost impossible to see.
What does this mean for Marketers as Google Removes Right-hand Side Ads?
- This opens more opportunities for paid ads.
- PPC will probably become more expensive
- SEO becomes even more difficult especially for “most searched” terms
- Long tail search may become more important
- Because PPC may and most probably will become more expensive conversion will matter. No one wants to pay more without seeing the results.
- Start focusing more on branding, if people stop searching for keywords and start searching for the brand, more organic results will come up.
In conclusion, Google is always improving AdWords and although it was rather unexpected, this move fits in with Google’s ‘mobile-first’ strategy, and there’s probably more changes to be expected. We’ll see that mobile and desktop searches will bear much closer resemblance to each other in future.
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Sources: searchenginewatch.com
