Google Penalizing Websites that Have Contact Forms at Top of Website Page?

[webestate]

Has anyone else heard of Google penalizing websites for having their contact forms located at the top of the website?

For example http://www.austintenantadvisors.com/

Look forward to hearing other thoughts on this.

[CarlosFernandes]

Google introduced a new algorithm change a few months back that looks at your page layout and if the ads above the fold are excessive, your site can be penalized and downgraded in the search results.

I have never heard of anything that would indicate this also applies to contact forms.

I would have said that normally it would always be best to put the content higher - and you would not want to push that content down (for similar reasons to the banner ads pushing content down).  You want a good user experience.  however - your form is integrated in a very thin bar and does not compromise the user experience in my opinion.

I would say you have nothing to worry about with that form and its placement.

I have put the relevant part of the GOOGLE release though below as it pertains to page layout and placement of content.

Quote:
We've heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it's difficult 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 right away. So sites that don't have much content "above-the-fold" can be affected 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 visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.

[JustDucky]

Nathan -  Someone recently posted a thread on BHW which suggests Penguin penalized sites similar to what you're describing.  (The examples are worth looking at and comparing to your site.)  Other people are insisting that Penguin does not apply to any on page variables.  Without setting up some throw away sites and testing, I do not know the answer and wish I did.

[goodlegaladvice]

I don't think the theory matches what google is trying to accomplish with many businesses the best thing customer can do for themselves is fill out a form & get what they need I think its almost like saying google would penalize you for putting your phone number up top.....

[blu42media]

You could try an A/B test.  On some pages, place the form below your #container div and absolute position the contact form back up to the top with CSS.  After that, monitor for a bit and see if it helps.  Perhaps it's the making of a future YOUmoz blog post?

[JustDucky]

@ John - Sounds like a useful experiment for someone who can code and wants YouMoz exposure.

@ G.L.A. -  G's "business model" is to use search to sell ads and not to provide the "best" results.   I would not be surprised at all if G is now penalizing large contact forms, contact forms above the fold, etc. at least as harshly as some of the earlier Panda updates penalized over use of AdWords.  If Adwords ads are not immune under certain conditions, why would contact forms for the site itself be treated more generously assuming all other things are equal ?