On around 6th of February, Google did a small update to their Page Layout Algorithm. It was actually the third update of the same. We don’t have any idea about how much this update impacted the search results, but as per me it must not have caused that much of impact.

At first I thought not to write anything about it, but then I changed my perception as I saw a few sites which are still not up to the mark as per this update. So here comes my blog on Google Page Layout Update and its impact on SEO.

Google Page Layout Update

In the month of January 2012 Google first launched this update through which they forced the importance of putting useful importance on above the fold section of any website. As per them it was a bad concept of putting excessive ads in that section, due to which the user had bad experience in finding the actual content for which they landed.

As per Google, if you are putting excessive ads on above the fold then your website might be penalized and might also be removed from search results. While I was preparing the blog on 20 reasons which might penalize your website by Google, I ignored this above the fold impact, as I thought it is quite genuine for the website owners to follow this rule and I thought many of the website owners are already doing this.

But the day when Google updated it for the third time (first update on 19th January 2012, then second update on 9th October 2012, and then the third one on 6th February 2014) I realized that there are so many website owners who are still not following this rule. Also in between I myself visited a few blogs which are not following this rule of putting main content on above the fold area. So I came up with this blog.

Concept behind Google Page Layout Update

Well, the concept behind this Google Page Layout Update was quite simple. Google always wants to provide quality results to its users. Along with the same line they want a better user experience when they visit any link from the SERP (Search Engine Result Page) for a particular search.

Whenever a user lands on a page, they find it hard to locate the main content or information, for which they came to that particular page. They usually had a bad experience to scroll down the page past a few blocks of ads. It was quite natural that the user was looking for the information which they were looking for right away then they land there.

So this update was a warning for the sites which don’t have much content above the fold.

Impact of Google Page Layout Update on SEO

The impact of this page layout update on Search Engine Optimization was not considered much. There were a few reasons why this update did not impact that much.

One of the prime reasons why this update was not a sensation for SEO community as normally there was a concept of putting their best possible ads on the above the fold section only, which was the reason why this ad block became the high performing block for everyone.

Similarly, Google also do the same. Check the below image in which Google is also displaying ads on above the fold section.

So in my opinion this update was not that much important enough to think about, unless you put ads in a way that your actual content is quite below.

If your website got affected due to this update, try removing a few blocks of ads from the top and I am sure Google will again start giving value to your website.

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