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Thursday, January 19, 2012
In our ongoing effort to help you find more high-quality websites in search results, today we're
launching an algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a webpage and the amount of content
you see on the page once you click on a result.
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.
We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often
perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect
sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to
load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual
original content on the page. This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there
is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently
pushed down by large blocks of ads.
This algorithmic change noticeably affects less than 1% of searches globally. That means that in
less than one in 100 searches, a typical user might notice a reordering of results on the search
page. If you believe that your website has been affected by the page layout algorithm change,
consider how your web pages use the area above-the-fold and whether the content on the page is
obscured or otherwise hard for users to discern quickly. You can use our
Browser Size tool, among
many others,
to see how your website would look under different screen resolutions.
If you decide to update your page layout, the page layout algorithm will automatically reflect the
changes as we re-crawl and process enough pages from your site to assess the changes. How long
that takes will depend on several factors, including the number of pages on your site and how
efficiently Googlebot can crawl the content. On a typical website, it can take several weeks for
Googlebot to crawl and process enough pages to reflect layout changes on the site.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle launched an algorithmic change that prioritizes websites with easily accessible content "above-the-fold" and penalizes those with excessive ads or a lack of visible content in that area.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThis change primarily targets websites where a substantial portion of the initial screen real estate is dedicated to ads, hindering users from quickly accessing the main content.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebsites with a normal amount of ads above-the-fold are generally unaffected, with the impact primarily focused on sites excessively prioritizing ads over readily available content.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThough less than 1% of searches are affected, website owners should prioritize user experience by ensuring content is easily discernible above-the-fold, potentially utilizing tools like Browser Size to assess page layout across various screen resolutions.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle encourages webmasters to focus on delivering a positive user experience rather than solely concentrating on algorithm tweaks, emphasizing the importance of content accessibility and user-friendliness.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Google launched an algorithm update on January 19, 2012, to prioritize webpage layouts with more content visible \"above-the-fold.\" Sites heavily laden with ads at the top, obscuring content, risk lower rankings. This affects less than 1% of searches. Website owners should ensure primary content is easily viewable. Changes to layouts will be reflected after Google re-crawls the site, which may take weeks. The key recommendation is to prioritize the user experience.\n"],null,["# Page layout algorithm improvement\n\n| It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore). Check out our documentation about [page experience](/search/docs/appearance/page-experience).\n\nThursday, January 19, 2012\n\n\nIn our ongoing effort to help you find more high-quality websites in search results, today we're\nlaunching an algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a webpage and the amount of content\nyou see on the page once you click on a result.\n\n\nAs\n[we've mentioned previously](https://searchengineland.com/google-may-penalize-ad-heavy-pages-100601),\nwe've heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it's difficult to find the\nactual content, they aren't happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a\nslew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don't have much content\n\"above-the-fold\" can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the\nwebsite you see first either doesn't have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a\nlarge fraction of the site's initial screen real estate to ads, that's not a very good user\nexperience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.\n\n\nWe understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often\nperform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect\nsites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to\nload the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual\noriginal content on the page. This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there\nis only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently\npushed down by large blocks of ads.\n\n\nThis algorithmic change noticeably affects less than 1% of searches globally. That means that in\nless than one in 100 searches, a typical user might notice a reordering of results on the search\npage. If you believe that your website has been affected by the page layout algorithm change,\nconsider how your web pages use the area above-the-fold and whether the content on the page is\nobscured or otherwise hard for users to discern quickly. You can use our\n[Browser Size](https://browsersize.googlelabs.com/) tool, among\n[many others](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/screen%20resolution),\nto see how your website would look under different screen resolutions.\n\n\nIf you decide to update your page layout, the page layout algorithm will automatically reflect the\nchanges as we re-crawl and process enough pages from your site to assess the changes. How long\nthat takes will depend on several factors, including the number of pages on your site and how\nefficiently Googlebot can crawl the content. On a typical website, it can take several weeks for\nGooglebot to crawl and process enough pages to reflect layout changes on the site.\n\n\nOverall, our advice for publishers\n[continues to be to focus on delivering the best possible user experience](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=R7Yv6DzHBvE#t=1186s)\non your websites and not to focus on specific algorithm tweaks. This change is just one of the\nover 500 improvements we expect to roll out to search this year. As always, please post your\nfeedback and questions in our\n[Webmaster Help forum](https://support.google.com/webmasters/community).\n\n\nPosted by\n[Matt Cutts](https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/),\nDistinguished Engineer"]]
