It seems like they are very busy at the moment over at Google HQ with multiple changes being implemented over the past week.
Main search column width
The first major update to report is an apparent change in the main search column width – this can be hard to notice at first and has an impact on the way organic search results are displayed (and Google AdWords ads):
(Credit: SEM Post)
What does this mean?
It means that, theoretically, some organic search results will now show higher up the page – you can see in the example above the 3rd organic listing is quite clearly visible on the new width compared to the old width. This is great for those that might have been disrupted by Google’s recent decision to remove side bar ads from search results and increase the number of ads above organic search results.
This potentially has a big impact on other traditional SEO factors as well though:
Title tags and Meta descriptions
It means that Title tag and meta description length have increased – at the moment title tag best practice length is 55-60 characters, whereas now it looks as though webmasters will be able to stretch to 70 characters before Google implements ellipses (…).
Rich Snippets
Rich snippets will now also take up less space, as it doesn’t seem as though Google is pulling any extra text since the new update has rolled out. This is thanks to the increased width which means the snippet takes up less vertical space (good news for those currently being pushed below the fold by Rich Snippets).
(Credit: SEM Post)
Google Map Pack results
These are now appearing to contain more information, and have followed rich snippets in reducing in height. For those working on LOCAL SEO, this will again hopefully mean that those not featured in the local map pack might just make it above the fold if in the top organic positions.
BUT EVEN AFTER ALL OF THIS, THEY COULDN’T QUITE LET IT BE A GREAT DAY FOR ORGANIC SEARCH.
AdWords ads also take advantage of extra space
Yep – and it makes sense of course, but where this could impact is where in previous results site-links may have appeared without their accompanying description, they now have the space to do so.
See this Starbucks ad as a good example of this change:
There has been no further confirmation from Google on whether or not the width change also means that advertisers will be able to create headlines and descriptions with extra characters – our hunch would be that this will happen to tie in with longer title tags.
Google have been relatively quiet since rolling this out, and it is also unclear as to how many search results this affects, so we will keep an eye out.
Our personal thoughts are that, whilst this seems like a few small changes, they amount to quite a large change in how Google looks and feels. It could also mean some organic traffic increases, as well as increases in site-link clicks which can now be tracked in Google Analytics.
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