If you didn’t think you needed SEO before, it’s now time to reconsider. Businesses can start to dial marketing consulting agencies now, because SEO is a priority. Remember those ads that showed up on the right side of a google search on your desktop? Now they’re gone. The only ads that are visible are now the ones at the top of the page and the bottom, and there will only be four. Right side ads will now be exclusively for product Listing Ads.
But Why?
A Google spokesperson gave comment, “We’ve been testing this layout for a long time, so some people might see it on a very small number of commercial queries. We’ll continue to make tweaks, but this is designed for highly commercial queries where the layout is able to provide more relevant results for people searching and better performance for advertisers”.
Google’s decision to remove the paid ads are to help the consumer navigate through searches more clearly and is also commercial driven for businesses looking to invest in CPC. This means the top spot competition just rose, so businesses need to start planning for a bigger budget for paid ads. These CPC rates are high, considering the amount of companies willing to pay top dollar for the top spot. We can now assume that inclusion on the top paid ad spots are granted to businesses with large budgets. For businesses placing their bet on organic search results, SEO specialists have been trying to convince you of the importance of content optimization and now there’s no denying it.
Sign Me Up for SEO
Search engine optimization has always competed with paid ads. SEO specialists understand the importance of significant keywords in order to bring business webpages further and further up the google food chain. Strategically incorporated keywords can mean the difference between page one and page 16 in a google search. This doesn’t mean that businesses with small budgets need to tap out of the competition. SEO specialists know to focus on longer tail queries, that are less competitive keywords but still generate a high volume of searches. Marketers, start re-evaluating your keywords and start your search engines.
What Does This Mean for Businesses?
Consider investing in content optimization. Marketing agencies are highly knowledgeable in content optimization and have created their own strategies. Businesses have to really work harder for organic results since there is less space available in the Google results. Content optimization is now top priority for businesses that want to stay on top of google results, which is just about every business out there.
What used to keep you at spot four, may not be enough since you are now pushed further down google results.
