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Changes to Google Desktop SERP

Posted on by Beverly Mapes

Google SERP 2016

The SERP (search engine result pages) that everyone sees after querying a term on Google have recently changed significantly.

The changes have quite an impact on both PPC and organic search. For both organic and PPC, the maximum number of positions on the first page of Google have decreased. This means there is even more competition for the coveted first page.

Here are details of the most prominent changes:

For Paid Search:

  • Google will no longer show text ads in the right side bar
  • As many as four text ads will display above the organic listings
  • As many as three text ads will below the organic listings
  • The maximum number of text ads per page is 7, formerly 11
  • Product listing ad blocks and knowledge panels (some with test ads) will show on the right side bar in place of text ads

For Organic Search:

  • The number of listings can be as few as 7 and as many as 10, depending on ad activity for the term

Just a few questions include “will this change sky rocket CPC?” and “Are there even more changes coming that increase text ad places and decrease organic, since incremental changes are easier to take?”

Only time will tell, as we adjust our strategies to the changes and keep our finger on the ever-changing pulse in the online marketing industry.

Top Of The List’s New Website

Posted on by Beverly Mapes

Our new website is finally live! This is Top Of The List’s first major website update since 2009, so it was well overdue.

Kudos for design go to Scott Osborne of Sauce, and development credits go to Jeff Thomas of Grandesigns. These are both very talented individuals, and they both were the right team members for our project.

In addition to the colorful, clean design, one of the things we’re most excited about is having our blog directly on site. In creating a history of blog posts, we moved most of our former press releases to the blog. In addition, posts that were on my personal blog were moved over.

More than half of our clients have redesigned their sites in the past 2 years, and in doing so, we’ve been recommending responsive design for mobile as well as https everywhere. These are highly favored by Google for good reasons, so it just makes sense to add them to the site redesign list.

In keeping with the saying “the painter paints his own house last,” we also went https everywhere and implemented responsive design for Top Of The List’s new site. After just a few days, our placement has already improved on some prime keywords!