Google prioritises making money effectively: higher CPCs expected

Google has been making more changes to the search engine results page (SERP) recently. Google changed its search results by showing more paid ads at the top of the page, up to four, and removing ads from the right side. This could affect search engine advertising (SEA) and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.

From the example above, it is clear from a quick glimpse that all we see are paid links over organic ones. Coming from an SEO background, this hurts. Google has just increased its paid search real estate while reducing the organic listings' footprint. I anticipate that with now 4 text ads at the top, we should be seeing increased competition on branded keywords. In some instances, Product listing ads (PLAs) have replaced the text ads on the right. Brands must prioritise PLAs to ensure that they have maximum visibility on Google's SERP. I'm expecting PLAs to replace text ads in the coming months or years, especially in terms of click traffic and cost-effectiveness.

Larry Kim shares interesting findings on Search Engine Land on the recent changes to certain metrics. It is incredible how a small change to the layout of the Google SERP affects the behaviour of the users on paid ads. Position 3 on paid search suddenly became attractive. Maybe, it is a lot more cost-effective and impactful to be in Position 3 than Position 1. Further investigation is required.

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Everything You Need to Know about the New Google SERP Layout

Well, well, well. It’s the same old story. An update to the Google search engine results page (SERP) is inevitably accompanied by an industry-wide freak-out. On February 18th, Google eliminated all right-column ads and made four ads at the top of the SERP standard.

Kayla Hammersmith