Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced that Google has released a revive of its Page Layout Algorithm. The filter, also known as the Top Heavy algorithm, downgrades the ranking of a web page with too many ads at the top or if the ads are deemed too distract for users.
Cutts said the algorithm was revitalized. Here’s his tweet:
This would be the third established update to the Top Heavy algorithm.
Background On & improving From Top Heavy
What is the page layout algorithm? As we quoted from Google initially:
We’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s hard to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content correct away.
So sites that don’t have much content “above-the-fold” can be artificial by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of noticeable content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real assets to ads, that’s not a very good user experience.
Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.
See also our original article for when Top Heavy was first released, for advice about how a site that’s fixed may have to wait until the next release for any changes it’s made to restore rankings.
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