The End for Adwords...Well At Least On The Right Hand Side: What does this mean for your business?

The End for Adwords…Well At Least On The Right Hand Side: What does this mean for your business

As reported over the weekend, Google planned to remove all PPC ads on the right-hand side of the search engine results page. Google have confirmed the changes and they will take immediate effect.

Why has Google decided to kill the right hand side ads?

Google has decided to remove the paid search ads from the right hand side of search results due to poor click-through rates. Alternatively, the top bar can now display up to four adverts instead of just three, and more ads will now be shown at the bottom of the screen.

What does this mean for businesses and their SEO strategy?

There’s been plenty of speculation on what this will do to businesses, advertisers and marketers, with many suggesting that the top-of-the-page paid search will be even more competitive and expensive and that organic listings may no longer appear on the first page of SERP. This will put more pressure on marketers and users alike to achieve higher rankings in organic search results.

It has also been suggested that product listing ads could even take over the search engine results. Advertisers who have been consistently bidding for positions between the fourth – sixth range will now need to think about increasing their bids to reach a higher ranking or accept a lower visibility rate.

PurpleFruit’s advice: Aim High!

At PurpleFruit we have certainly seen a drastic change in first page click-through rates over the years, in particularly with organic search. Getting on the first page on SERP is not always good enough, however every term is different and we would recommend you should at least be aiming for the top three, if not, you could risk dropping off in the click-through rates.

You should consider becoming the brand that users think of before they even go to Google with a search term. Whether you’re looking at paid listings, competitors, or anything else that may prevent users from landing on your site, ensure they get to you first and remember your brand, so they become returning customers.

We cannot see any impact on AdWords auction dynamics, such as clicks, impressions etc. The only negative here is that organic search results have now been removed from the above fold on the desktop.

There are some great benefits to paid search from the Google’s new change up, for example, all ads now will use call-out and location extensions, etc., which were only beneficial to top-of-page ads.

To Conclude…

To quantify the impact of the change, we would like to point out that this change will only affect desktop users, which accounts for less than half of overall searches. So ideally, we are only looking at less than 8% of search queries affected. The change is a positive one for those of you using paid desktop search.

If you would like to give your organic search the all important boost that Google now requires, or if you would like to find out more about our PPC services, why not get in touch with one of the Geeks today.

Our expert SEO can:

• Boost the number of pages ranked by the search engines
• High rankings and better positioning of web pages
• Increase in lead quality
• A Boost in quantity of visitors
• A Boost in leads and sales

Give us a call today on 03303350621 or email us on geeks@purplefruit.co.uk – We’re here to help!