SEO News: Google Algorithm Change – The Morissette Update

If you’re a fan of Alanis Morissette, you might be interested to know that not that many things she actually sang about in that song were ironic, which is kind of annoying. But late last week I came across something that’s a little bit close to ironic; Google announcing that a recent algorithm change is designed to target and penalise ad heavy websites.

According to their blog, Google are targeting sites which have an extreme number of ads on their site – specifically though they’re talking about sites with too many ads above the fold. Their argument is that sites with lots of adverts above the fold make it difficult for users to find the useful content which Google has directed them too, thus affecting the all important user experience.

So will your site be affected? What type of sites will suffer a hit to their rankings?

Well, to get an idea of the kind of site this algorithm change might affect, imagine a site that places heavy prominence on ads above the fold. A site that optimises hundreds of pages so that each one presents ads before the more natural, useful content, and which does this to monetize and bring in as much revenue as possible. In fact, imagine Google.co.uk.

Any one of Google’s own millions of search results pages could be considered offenders under this new algorithm change, simply because of the number of ads in place. I’ve just run a general search and the resulting page has 7 ads above the fold and three organic listings.

My point is that although Google’s search results pages have lots of ads above the fold, (for now) these ads are relevant and useful, and don’t detract from helping me find what I’m looking for.

This brings us to the crux of this new change – how much is too much? Google might argue that their 7 ads above the fold are acceptable – but then how many is too many in terms of other sites?

It’s also ironic that Google have announced this algorithm change when they own and operate one of the web’s most popular ad display networks. Does this change mean that Google will begin to penalise organically those sites which use its own ad display network too religiously? Perhaps Google haven’t noticed this irony yet, or perhaps there’s provision in the algorithm which effectively ignores Google’s own display network but penalises others. In theory, this would certain help to solidify the display network’s dominance as the choice of the masses, but there are issues there in terms of fair competition.

We’re unlikely to get an answer to any of this in the short term, but it’s worth bearing in mind next time you’re placing ads. Ominously, Google suggested that this change isn’t limited to ads above the fold either. In the blog in question they seem to suggest that if a site has only a small amount of content above the fold then it could be penalised in search, regardless of whether the rest of the above fold space is taken up by ads, flash, video or anything else.

Bear this in mind if your site’s take a hit in the coming weeks.