What’s New with Google Search Results?

There is big news on the Google front. These changes are likely to impact both your paid search and SEO strategy. For those who have not heard of the search results changes, here is the scoop.

Since Google’s launch, they have had a similar search results layout. We have all become accustomed to 3 paid search results on the top of the page, up to 8 paid search results on the right rail, and SEO results immediately underneath the top 3 paid search ads. We would see occasional paid search ads at the very bottom of the page, although, those have traditionally had a very small share of clicks.

As mobile and tablet searches have continued to increase, Google wanted to make the search results more universal in nature. The end result would be similar search results on desktop devices, mobile, and tablet.

On mobile we are used to seeing 2 paid search ads on the top of the page and SEO results below. No paid search results appear on the right rail. Now that mobile searches have surpassed those of desktop, this has slowly become the norm.

Now we are seeing 3 to 4 paid search ads on the top of the desktop / tablet search results and nothing on the right rail. For mobile, Google has moved from 2 paid search ads on the top of the page to 3 in some cases.

The PML team is keeping a close eye on how this impacts our position strategy, competitive bidding, and overall performance.