Google Testing 4 Organics
Just saw this on Google (see screenshot below), it’s basically a search results page with very accurate location information (my poscode has been erased out) and it only shows 4 listings. DaveN says he has seen this on some searches for brands and James, one of our developers, has also been seeing it.
If Google is considering rolling this out, god knows what the impact will be – perhaps we’ll see more click throughs to page 2? There will certainly be more pressure to get keywords ranking #4 minimum.
20 Comments
Roger - http://www.lisbonapartments.com
Wow! Could be a big change! But doubt they’ll implement this.
And what do you think of the AdWords targetting? 🙂
Aussiewebmaster - http://www.smart-keywords.com
Very interesting – seems it is open season for playing with the page layouts – and hey if people are impacted they can always run to PPC to grab lost traffic while the tests are tried.
New way this year – no algorithm update just beta test numerous page layouts
Lohnt Sich - http://www.lohnt-sichs.de
I saw this also in google.de quite often in the last 3 weeks and not only on local search terms. Was wondering what happened and thougt it is a bug.
Matt Ridout - http://www.seounique.com/blog
You’re spot on David, they’ve been testing it for a while although I’ve seen 4/5/6/7 results over the last few months too (http://www.seounique.com/blog/google-test-4-results-serps/ – this is what I found a few months back)
Mike
I saw this earlier today too on google.com, but it was for a relatively generic (but not that high traffic) term. I thought it was an error, went to page 2 and got 10 results, then back to page 1 and it gave me 10 results instead of 4.
ben
Been seeing this sporadically over the last 2 months or so too. Mostly for brand terms like DaveN
Andreas - http://www.alchemyv.co.uk
I think Google Instant has already increased the pressure for top 3 – top 4 results. But this obviously rachets it up a little. Still I love the challenge!
gadget - http://www.gadget-blog.co.uk
I’ve noticed this too in recent weeks. G are certainly taking this more seriously than they have previously, with results being interjected wherever they can. I’ve just searched for ‘phones’ (from a Londo IP) and saw this throughout the results.
Rob Millard - http://www.rob-millard.com
Also seen this but it wasn’t for a local search. Haven’t been able to replicate it though since I first saw it – assumed it was a glitch at the time.
mr_tim
Has anyone seen results like this when not using Instant?
Ian Sheldon - http://www.online-digital.net
I’ve been seeing this for a while and came to the conclusion that it was an incomplete results page.
Also, what have Harry Potter ads got to do with Harrogate jobs? Looks like another botched search on Google Instant to me! 🙂
Rahul Batra - http://www.designinglabs.com
Yes I had seen this thing, but now Google places comes first and I still don’t know why Google is doing that.
STRAIGHTALK - http://www.straightalk.biz/designs
I have seen this only with instant off, not really good terms, and I haven’t been able to duplicate.. thought I was loosing my mind for a second until I found this article. cool
Vipul - http://www.sportskeeda.com
I also noticed this couple of times. I think this will improve the CTR on PPC more as Ads part looks more catchy on the page due to decrease in the size and text.
No doubt ranking top for any keyword will generate lot extra traffic.
mr x
Ofcourse for more local ad serving.
Only was forward.
Groupon’s rejection of 6B is a good indication of that.
Paul Carpenter - http://www.itsafamilything.co.uk
I saw it when I was looking for a PHP command last week – it only brought back 4 pages, all from PHP.net. I’ve seen it on occasion before as well though, but only sporadically.. so it’s a definite test rather than an incomplete result.
Also: if you are looking for a job in Harrogate, I’m sure Subway are hiring 🙂
David Whitehouse
LOL I was wondering how long it would be before someone mentioned something. I was actually checking out Anthony’s ranking… he bought jobsinharrogate.co.uk and has been trying to get it to rank.
Adam Heaton - http://www.weblinx.co.uk
This has happened to me in the past and when I refreshed it the listings went back to normal, I’m assuming it’s just a bug.
Julian - http://www.mycouponcodes.com
It wont be long now until there are zero natural results. Google is getting so greedy that they want to squeeze every penny out or each search. I though their motto was suppose to be “do no evil”. Giving only 4 results might not be evil but it is certainly naughty.
James Brack - http://www.dreamscapedesign.co.uk
I have noticed this a few times. However, I have only seen it in Google Chrome, and when I refresh the page it seems usually reverts to the 10 listing page. Because of this I assumed it was a bug… Has anyone else experienced the same?