Reduction in organic visits due to AdWord changes

[smartcow]

Wondering if anyone else has noticed a change in site performance since Google has changed the way Adwords are displayed.

We have a site that has been performing well, however this year visits have dropped by 20%. The performance of the keywords has remained the same and bounce rate has actually reduced.

My suspicion is that with Google removing the Ad links from the right side of the page and placing 4 ads at the top of the page, this has pushed down the organinc results. Looking at some of the search results we now appear beyond the results page fold despite being the 1st orgainc result.

The Ad results has site links and there is the Map with local results all pushing our first organic result of the screen.

Has anyone else found this an issue or should I look elsewhere for the drop in visits? (The overall searches for our search terms has not dropped, just our percentage share has)

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Simon,

You are seeing the same as lots of others at the moment - many of my own clients have noticed impacts as well - especially so if you get a local result that has 4 ads, then 3 local results, and Google testing ads within the local pack as well. Soon 1st place organic will be 2nd page!

I'm not saying this is what is going to be causing your issues, but it is likely and without looking into this in more detail, it's hard to say what else might be causing you issues.

-Andy

[LSIversen]

If nothing major has been changed on the site, then I'd say it's plausible, that it's due to these changes.

I've especially seen dips on those keywords where the local pack shows up - so if your site is ranking on a lot of those, I'm afraid you're in for a rough ride. So if a majority of your clicks used to come from these searches, I'd probably start finding ways to boost your medium/long tail rankings on those terms - then you might avoid the local pack.

[EGOL]

This has been the progression with Google for a long time.  First ads only on the right, then a couple ads at the top, now up to four ads at the top and ads at the bottom.   Shopping results and image results are tossed in as well.   Adwords ads get colored markers and easily get review stars.

Andy Drinkwater:  "Soon 1st place organic will be 2nd page!"

I agree.  Google has to show earnings growth to shareholders.  The only way that they can do it is to make 25% more money per year from existing traffic  - because getting 25% more traffic is no longer attainable.

[TimHolmes]

As per the other guys in the discussion I too have seen this taking place, as a national brand the 4 pack and not so much the local pack has caused a drop in our organic traffic across brands.

We also noted a large than normal increase in Ad Spend when some of our ads switched to the main ad block area from within the sidebar, this is however, now back under control.

Unfortunately the Organic nature of the online searches is being pushed further away from the search user whom is now in many cases just getting ads.

[MiriamEllis]

Agree with Andy. Unfortunately, this is all part of Google's apparent master plan to force the pay-to-play scenario. Given that rumor has it that we will  also see a paid ad in one of the 3-pack spots at some point, the writing is on the wall.