Sean Walsh
Sean is a Director at Intelligency heading up our digital marketing and client services operations. Sean has 15+ years experiencing working both in-house and agency with brands including Lloyds, Alstom, Hitachi, Lufthansa, Viaplay, DFDS Seaways and Mercedes-Benz.
Google is trying out a new design to make ads stand out more in its search results. The changes include using a taller grey background and labels like “Sponsored” and “Promoted Results” to clearly mark ads.
Currently, Google’s ad labels are more subtle, but with this test, they’re making ads easier to spot.
What’s changing?
The ads will have a larger grey background, and after the ads, you’ll see a section labelled “All results,” which separates organic (non-paid) listings from the paid ones.
Why this matters for SEO
These changes may not directly affect Google’s search ranking algorithms, but they could still have a noticeable impact on SEO and how organic results perform. Here’s why:
Visibility of organic results:
With ads becoming more distinct, organic search results might get pushed further down the page, especially on mobile. This could reduce the visibility and click-through rates (CTR) for non-paid listings, which would potentially affect traffic from organic search.
Changes in user behaviour:
Users might start interacting differently with search results. Some may skip past ads to focus on organic listings, while others may be drawn to the more prominent ad format. SEO specialists need to watch for any changes in CTR on organic listings as these tests evolve.
Competition for clicks:
If ads are more noticeable, they could attract more attention, leading to fewer clicks on organic listings. This could create increased competition for organic traffic, particularly in competitive markets where paid ads dominate search results.
Ad and Organic strategy alignment:
For businesses that rely on both SEO and paid ads, this change highlights the importance of aligning both strategies. With ads becoming more prominent, it may help to integrate SEO efforts with paid search campaigns to ensure consistent visibility across both types of search results.
Summary
If Google decides to make these changes permanent, ads will become more obvious to users, which could lead to different browsing behaviours and influence how often ads get clicked. While these changes won’t directly impact search rankings, they could reduce the amount of traffic organic listings receive, especially if ads start to dominate more of the visible space in search results.
Advertisers and SEO specialists should pay close attention to how these experiments affect key metrics like click-through rates and conversion rates. If you rely heavily on organic search traffic, you might need to adjust your strategy as Google fine-tunes its ad presentation for better clarity and transparency.
Image & story credit to Anu Adegbola at Search Engine Land
