Anybody serious about SEO will want to consider how every detail of a website may affect its search ranking. While SEO practitioners may have suspected that the layout of a web page affected its search ranking, Google has now confirmed this in a January blog post. So how does the layout of a web page affect SEO and is it time to make major changes to your website?
First and foremost, it should be kept in mind that a neat page layout will always be welcomed by a visitor and will encourage them to browse the site. Even if this didn't impact SEO it will likely help conversion rate optimization. As it happens, Google has publicly stated in a blog post that web page layout will affect your search ranking. So what should you do about it?
If you have a web page that is more concerned with selling advertising space than displaying high quality content it is very likely that it will not rank as highly as if that same content was immediately visible once a visitor clicked on your site. This means that web page layout is important to SEO. But just how important is it?
The temptation to put more adverts above the fold comes from the fact that more money is paid for the prominent placing of adverts. Google has in no way suggested that an advert or two will hamper your search ranking. An SEO campaign shouldn't try to eliminate every advert in existence then, but if more of a web page above the fold is advert than content you may have a problem.
The fact that Google says only 1 in 100 sites have seen their rankings change because of a recent algorithm change affecting web page layout suggests it is only the worst offenders that needed punishing. So does SEO need to consider web page layout? From a purely SEO perspective there are far more important things to focus on, but if people are to link to your site it will need to be attractive as well as containing top content.
First and foremost, it should be kept in mind that a neat page layout will always be welcomed by a visitor and will encourage them to browse the site. Even if this didn't impact SEO it will likely help conversion rate optimization. As it happens, Google has publicly stated in a blog post that web page layout will affect your search ranking. So what should you do about it?
If you have a web page that is more concerned with selling advertising space than displaying high quality content it is very likely that it will not rank as highly as if that same content was immediately visible once a visitor clicked on your site. This means that web page layout is important to SEO. But just how important is it?
The temptation to put more adverts above the fold comes from the fact that more money is paid for the prominent placing of adverts. Google has in no way suggested that an advert or two will hamper your search ranking. An SEO campaign shouldn't try to eliminate every advert in existence then, but if more of a web page above the fold is advert than content you may have a problem.
The fact that Google says only 1 in 100 sites have seen their rankings change because of a recent algorithm change affecting web page layout suggests it is only the worst offenders that needed punishing. So does SEO need to consider web page layout? From a purely SEO perspective there are far more important things to focus on, but if people are to link to your site it will need to be attractive as well as containing top content.