Member Article

Google Kills Right Side Ads

Google’s decision to remove all right had side paid ads from the right hand side of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) is causing some stir in the online community. Carry out s search on Google and the viewable page above the fold (above the fold is a reference to the portion of a webpage that is visible without scrolling. There is really no set definition for this as screen sizes vary so much and are also governed by the viewing settings on the individual computer) invariably contains paid for advertising.

This is a commercially-driven move by Google, but the problem is, will it lessen the user experience and compel users to immediately look below the fold for organic listings?

This happens with YouTube now – users can’t wait to press the Skip Ad button when it appears on a video to prevent the ad from playing.

It will affect advertisers; the chances of your paid for ad appearing on Google’s page one SERPS are much diminished and consequently the cost of securing one of the four above the fold places allocated by Google under its bidding and page evaluation system will rocket.

Under the old system, which died on February 22nd 2016, you at least had a chance of appearing on page one of the Google results; there were three sponsored ad spots at the top and multiple ads on the right hand side. Now the right hand side is empty and there are four sponsored ads at the top of the page.

The right hand side is being cleared out to make space for Product Listing Ads, which are obviously more lucrative for them.

The move also brings the desktop Adwords more in line with mobile ads which Google deem to be a very important area for them as more and more browsers turn to mobile devices for their product and service searches.

The impact on the bidding costs for top spots on Google SERPS will be substantial; the winners would seem to be those who can afford to spend the most in customer acquisition, but ultimately it will be Google who will be the winners as their advertising revenue soars.

In 2013 Google revenue was $55,519,000,000 US dollars.

In the 120 seconds it took to look up those figures, Google added another $220,000 dollars to its coffers.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Glass Frog .