Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Page Layout Algorithm Google - Questions from Publishers

Recently Google announced an official algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a webpage and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on a result.

This change has the intention of improving Google's search users online experience and their ability to get to relevant content faster. This goal for their search user clients is clear and very positive.

However, there are many unanswered questions from publishers, Google's other important clients.

Questions from Publishers to Google:

  1. What is a normal amount of ads above-the-fold, can Google be more specific here?
  2. Where is the above-the-fold in Google's view point, is this impacted by the viewers settings?
  3. What is an ad? Can Google define how it's system will classify what an ad is, from an image for example?
  4. Are Google's own AdSense ads exempt from the amount of ads on a webpage?
  5. When will Google specify what they mean by "excessive" amounts of ads?
  6. Are internal ads with images as wel as text, linking to other content internally, classified as ads?
  7. When will Google adjust its own search results home page and ads to reflect this change?
  8. If a site loosing ranking due to this change, where can publishers see why they have been penalized?
  9. Is "amount" the size, pixels, number or the weight of ads or a combination of these?
  10. How can publishers get an more transparent view on how the algorithmic ranking now works?
  11. Can the algorithmic ranking distinguish between original content and copied content?
  12. Could Google publish results of spammers who have been penalized by Google, so there is transparency?
  13. Can't ads be disabled by Google as opposed to the site's ranking being negatively impacted?
  14. Is it Googles intention that all ads should be down the right hand side of the webpage only from now on?
  15. Can Google guarantee a very high ranking now, if all ads are removed from all pages, so content is king?
  16. Is there internal agreement between AdSense optimizers and Google's spam team around this new policy?

It would be great if Google could give some answers to questions from publishers. It may help Google's reputation if they were more transparent with their publisher clients.

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