These changes were not skin deep. They were the biggest changes in how visible paid searches were and how searches could be used in Google ads. Businesses that relied on free search results would also compete for these free searches. Google displayed a total of 11 ads on a search results page and these changes reduced that total to 7. The structure of the first page of a search results page would never be the same.
To evaluate the impact of the choice and the changes made in the world of marketing search engines, it is useful to analyze the justifications and the structure of search results during that time and the factors that influenced the competitive environment.
⚡ Ad Removals by Google
On desktop devices, Google has had advertisements on the right side of the search results for years. Users have become used to the advertisements on the side and have been conditioned to know that the paid listings are the ones that are separate from the rest of the listings. This ad placement was designed according to the old standards of the web, and it was appropriate for the large monitors in use during that time. However, in 2010, Google started to test different ad placements while monitored the behavior of the users. Their studies showed that the ads on the right hand side received less clicks than the ads that were placed above or below the search results.
Most recently, Google Ads had to adapt to the new layout of Google SERPs (removal of the right sidebar ads). Google now shows ads on the SERP in batches of 3 at the top, 3 at the bottom, and each of the bottom ads can trigger an extra top ad when the queries are of higher intent and commercial in nature. The ads are relevant to verticals with high-ticket items such as hotels, insurance, real-estate, legal services, and other keyword verticals with high conversion rates.
From eleven ad slots at a time, there would now only seven, which means a significant loss of ad space. This especially concerned businesses paying for ads, which led to paid traffic loss. Meanwhile, SEO professionals speculated that perhaps the fewer ads would allow the organically placed results to be highlighted. Alternatively, more top ads means the organic results would be pushed even further down the page and contained out of view to the search audience.
The Exceptions
Product Listing Ads (PLAs)
Ads that should appear, also do not. This includes Ads that are Product Listing Ads, or PLAs, which are targeted towards advertisers in the ecommerce space and are able to remain in the right column since they provide more commercial functionality and display prices, product images, and merchants.
Knowledge Panels
The second exception is knowledge panels. When searching for a specific brand, location, or entity, a sidebar of business information appears, including its address, number, hours of operation, website, reviews, and other structured data. It conveys important information, and because of this, Google kept this panel.
These two examples showed the company’s interest in actively choosing to display useful information instead of simple text ads. This change marked the start of a larger redesign, one aimed at decluttering and simplifying the search page, and bringing desktop search in line with the mobile design.
Why Google Wanted Desktop to Look More Like Mobile
The increased usage of smartphones impacted the interactions users had with search engines. Mobile devices were more advanced, more helpful, and more accessible. Eventually, searches from the mobile web began to drastically increase to the point of surpassing desktop searches for the first time in history, which Google noticed.
There used to be no ads on the right side of the mobile screen. The ads on the desktop screen were removed because we were trying to create a cohesive design across device types. With the right side ads removed, desktop results were more closely aligned to a screen design mobile users were already accustomed to. Google noticed this narrow screen design and saw an opportunity to create a more cohesive experience across devices.
Removing ads from mobile and desktop resulted in a more cohesive and consistent experience across screen sizes. This greatly benefits Google as it simplifies the algorithms determining where ads get placed and provides more predictability to advertisers. This also provides more consistent results across screen sizes and reflects modern search habits.
Impact on Advertisers
This also impacted advertisers. Fewer ads on the right side of the desktop screen meant advertisers were competing for those spots. When fewer spots became available, advertisers had to assess their budget to determine if they needed to increase their bids. This became a growing trend in the more competitive industries where the cost per click continued to increase.
⚠️ The Reality: This left limited budgets with extremely tough choices. Improvements in ad quality and targeting became a necessity and for many the focus had to shift to organic search, particularly as paid visibility became increasingly unattainable.
Reduction in the number of ads led to environments being more premium. Top ads became more expensive and in demand because users get more engagement of the first few results. With fewer ads splitting screen real estate, even top results had more bias in steering the users’ focus.
How Organic Traffic Was Affected
Many marketers and business owners questioned the diminishing ads to see whether it would improve or decrease the inflow of organic traffic. Because of certain contradicting variables at play, the question isn’t as simple as it seems.
✅ Potential Positives
Fewer ads should, in theory, lead to cleaner optics, making organic listings more visible. Users who chose to bypass the ads would be more likely to scroll to the first organic result, providing it with more visibility.
❌ Potential Negatives
But also hovering over the top of the results as the potential fourth top ad was a complicating factor. Additional ads would mean pushing organic results down, especially so if the user had a smaller desktop or laptop. There were cases where organic listings would have previously been in the top four and completely fall out of sight. This especially raised concerns with SEO professionals.
Companies’ Shortcomings
As more businesses start putting more money into paid advertising through Google Ads, it becomes increasingly more expensive for smaller businesses to compete in the realm of paid advertising with the ability to rank high on Google search results pages. Research shows that users’ engagement levels are highest when one is amongst the top results of the Google search results. As each ad is only positioned above the organic results and Google only displays 2 to 4 of them, this pushes the organic search results down further, meaning they are seen and engaged with even less, creating a negative feedback loop. This feedback loop is even more exaggerated for small businesses.
This situation highlighted the value of good SEO services. Companies that previously depended on the low-cost advertisement placement to appear on the first page had to learn the tricks of the trade. They needed to focus more on the technical optimizations, the content strategy, the user experience, the authority of the links, and more. Businesses that could not afford the constantly rising paid advertisement costs had to depend on organic visibility more than ever.
Why SEO Became More Valuable After This Update
With the reduction of paid ad space, acquiring artificially high positions in the search engine became a competitive advantage, and more and more businesses realized that occupying a front-of-the-page position was a valuable asset. This shift increased the demand for experienced SEO expertise.
This was also the case for companies that kept their ad campaigns running. Better quality websites achieve better Quality Scores in Google Ads campaigns. Better Quality Scores improve ad rank and lower advertisement costs. Because of that, the link between SEO and paid search became stronger.
Evaluating Rank Secure’s Position In a Changing Search Landscape
During the most recent and arguably most drastic change in the search environment, companies specializing in SEO became crucial. Rank Secure, also one of Canada’s first Google partners and an SEO agency in Toronto, gained immense trust from companies during this initial phase. Google awards partnership status to agencies based on an evaluation of the advertising performance, client outcomes, and work continuance. For clients, an agency Google Partner badge is an important trust factor.
Rank Secure used its partnership to assist clients in understanding the new ad space, measuring changes on their ad campaigns, and bolstering their campaigns with an organic strategy. As advertising space became more limited, companies in all industries engaged SEO professionals to avert losing their profits and visibility.
⚖️ Will Less Advertising Space Be Good For Organic Search Or Not?
The answer is largely subjective. Here’s a fair consideration.
✅ Positive Outcomes for Organic Search
Less advertising in the search environment should have a positive net impact on organic search outcomes. For instance, it should bring more space for organic results to show. For users who used to scroll quickly past paid listings, visibility of organic results becomes more apparent. For high ranking organic results, users tend to have higher click through rates when there are less competing ads on the screen.
❌ Negative Outcomes for Organic Search
Potentially adding a fourth top ad would push organic listings further down the page. On smaller screens, organic results may be pushed off the page entirely. Ads positioned further down receive fewer clicks.
⚠️ Outcome for Small Advertisers
Less ad space results in increased competition. With underfunded budgets, smaller advertisers may be forced to shift their focus to organic traffic as their primary long term traffic source.
Outcome for the Industry
SEO can reap the rewards. With fewer paid placements in top positions, organic ranking for a keyword becomes paramount for any company to grow.
