How to adjust SEO strategy to Google’s new SERP ad layout

Everything you need to know about SEO, published jointly with Search Engine Land every Thursday.

Removing the ads from the right rail of Google search results pages was a long time coming (well, a long time for digital). An eye-mapping study from last year showed that people have gone from viewing the SERPs in an "F" pattern to doing a quick vertical scan down the left side, mostly ignoring the ads on the right side. People are also scanning the page faster by taking only eight or nine seco nds to click, down from 14 to 15 seconds in the 2005 study.

It only makes sense that Google would eventually react to how searchers are adapting to the line of links they are used to by taking away the right bar. This is also further evidence of Google's continued gravitation toward being a mobile-first search engine, since the right column of ads was not visible on mobile search.

While I understand why SEO professionals might worry, I don't think the recent move to showing up to four ads above organic results will have a profound effect on organic search. The extra ad will only be showing on "highly commercial queries," and there are several keyword types that remain ad-free or only have one or two ads on top, like e-commerce keywords with PLAs and no text ads, or long-tail keyword phrases.

All that said, no one trying to improve organic search traffic could be happy with the addition of extra ads before the 10 blue organic links. While we can't change the SERP layout, there are a few ways we can react to maintain a solid SEO strategy. Here are a few ways you can adapt to the ever-changing SERPs.

[Read the full article on Search Engine Land.]

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author Dan is an experienced online marketer focused on SEO. He is currently leading SEO strategy for Whole Foods Market. (Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)
Source: How to adjust SEO strategy to Google's new SERP ad layout