Dated Tuesday January 24, 2012
Google has updated its indexing algorithm, severely punishing webpages overloaded with adds. As originaly posted in the Google blog:
We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page. This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads.
How will it work? Nobody knows
How Google has realized this form of detection is not clear. How will you define "under the fold"? And how do you detect adds lower in HTML, but shifted upward using CSS? Even using javascript workarounds could easily be developed.
What is even more astonishing, is that Google promotes its own Adwords adds "above the fold". Would Google realy punish webmaster who are following the advice they have given themselfs?
