Google hits you for too many ads "Above the Fold"

[KyleGolemMedia]

Hey Warriors,

I found this article on LinkedIn this morning and thought I would share. I actually like that Google is making it harder for spammy IM'ers to gain traction. It keeps with the idea of creating a quality site for humans to consume content from.

I'm just a designer, though. What do I know

Your thoughts?

[MikeFriedman]

They are just enforcing rules that were already in place. No big deal.

[mosthost]

Search for 'Google Adsense Best Practices' and look at the document from Google. They rolled out a new heat map six months ago that suggested all this.

Now they're enforcing it.

Nobody likes to land a page that is all ad above the fold. Only real greedy webmasters would think anyone does

[Mark Bradley]

Originally Posted by KyleGolemMedia

Hey Warriors,

I found this article on LinkedIn this morning and thought I would share. I actually like that Google is making it harder for spammy IM'ers to gain traction. It keeps with the idea of creating a quality site for humans to consume content from.

I'm just a designer, though. What do I know

Your thoughts?

I would agree with you,I like the fact that Google are clamping
down on all of the detritus out there.

When you've taken the time to build a quality site,it kinda' p****s
you off to see your site outranked by a site offering nothing other
than BS.

[yukon]

They must have some d*mn fast servers & efficient algorithm code to be calculating page real estate (Ads vs content).

I'm sure it all boils down to a score/number in a database during page crawl, then they use that "above the fold" score with all the other algorithm data to deliver the SERPs. No way could they calculate that page real estate (above the fold) in real time, the SERPs would be slow when returning results.

I wonder since most Affliate systems use javascript to deliver affliate Ads, If Google simply looks for any type of javascript above the fold? Might be something worth A/B testing (move all javascript below the fold).

[mosthost]

Originally Posted by yukon

They must have some d*mn fast servers & efficient algorithm code to be calculating page real estate (Ads vs content).
.

It's Google. That's a real safe bet!

[Maraun]

They only need to figure it out once at crawltime, so it isn't that expensive. And determining what's an ad and what is not isn't that hard in most cases either. Just like browser plugins like Adblock, all they need is a list of common Advertiser URLs to see if a Layout element shows an ad or content. All navigation elements are template footprints so they are on all pages. Google can see that and determine it is not content.

There are probably lots of tricks and loopholes to get around that filter but why bother. By providing value to your users instead of a page full of ads you might even get return customers.

[MikeFriedman]

Originally Posted by yukon

They must have some d*mn fast servers & efficient algorithm code to be calculating page real estate (Ads vs content).

I'm sure it all boils down to a score/number in a database during page crawl, then they use that "above the fold" score with all the other algorithm data to deliver the SERPs. No way could they calculate that page real estate (above the fold) in real time, the SERPs would be slow when returning results.

One thing I read about this update was that if you get smacked by it, even after making corrections, Google says do not expect an immediate rebound. It will take some time, similar to Panda.

What I took from that was that they were not evaluating any of this in real time. Like you said, it is probably some score stored somewhere that gets updated from time to time, but not very frequently.

[BillHus]

I never use more than one ad per page anyways cause using more lowers my CPC.

[KyleGolemMedia]

Originally Posted by BillHus

I never use more than one ad per page anyways cause using more lowers my CPC.

Interesting insight, Thanks for that! I'm just getting into niche sites...experimenting anyway. I'll keep this in mind

[KyleGolemMedia]

Originally Posted by Maraun

They only need to figure it out once at crawltime, so it isn't that expensive. And determining what's an ad and what is not isn't that hard in most cases either. Just like browser plugins like Adblock, all they need is a list of common Advertiser URLs to see if a Layout element shows an ad or content. All navigation elements are template footprints so they are on all pages. Google can see that and determine it is not content.

There are probably lots of tricks and loopholes to get around that filter but why bother. By providing value to your users instead of a page full of ads you might even get return customers.

I totally agree. My goal in making a website is to get repeat customers. I'm a designer so my goal is to make things look as nice as possible, as well. Thanks for sharing!