Watch those above-the-fold ads, because Google is watching them, too
Google is turning a more critical eye to the above-the-fold ads you have placed on your website. Fresh from Google’s post on Inside Search:
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.
Moral of the story? As always, you want to focus on providing users with as much content as possible above the fold – or, at the very least, if your layout requires more space above the fold, make sure that the majority of any ads or sponsorship banners are placed well below the fold.
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