What’s happened to Google adverts?

You may not have realised from any recent Google Searches that you have made but there has been quite a significant change in the results. Remember those ‘sponsored adverts’ at the top and down the right hand side – the ones on the right have disappeared!

That’s correct, go on try it. Google have removed all the adverts that would appear down the right hand column and instead, now just return the top four sponsored adverts at the top of the page.

There are lots of theories why they have done this, the leading one being to make way for product search results. However there is no doubt that those adverts that did appear on the right hand side were getting little exposure because more searches now take place on mobile than any other device.

That means with more searches on mobile, there is quite simply no ‘screen-space’ for those adverts down the right hand side on a smartphone.

So what does this all mean? Well I’m quite sure that the cost of marketing your law firm via AdWords is going to cost you more. With even less positions available, the cost of bids is certainly going to increase as competition increases. Only those with deep pockets (especially in the personal injury sector) will survive.

There is also an impact on natural organic listings (those results under the sponsored adverts). With now four positions instead of three, organic listings will fall beneath the fold (that part of the screen immediately visible without having to scroll down). Eyeballs on organic listings will be lower and people will focus more on the sponsored adverts as a result.

So why has Google done this. I can think of two reasons. Firstly, with searches on mobile now outnumbering any other device, Google recognises that those results on the right hand side aren’t visible anyway. Secondly, Google is a business like any other. It is there to make money and it makes more money from those top three (now top four) adverts than any other. Typically, those top four adverts are from big companies who are big spenders with Google and Google will want to reward them with ‘exclusivity’.

It is now a brave new world when it comes to AdWords. In highly competitive sectors, AdWords will be reserved for those with big budgets. I’m not even convinced that niche areas will survive, long tail keywords and phrases may get you results but typically the search volume just isn’t there.

The impact on SEO and organic listing is also apparent and deciding on whether future investment in this area will yield results is uncertain.

What is absolutely clear is that mobile is impacting the way people search for information on Google and Google has reacted by changing its platform. Just another example of the power of mobile.