Free: Assessment Does your website build trust with buyers and bring in revenue?

Score My Website
Close

Free: Assessment

Does your website build trust with buyers and bring in revenue?
Take this free 6 question assessment and learn how your website can start living up to its potential.
Score My Website
inbound-marketing-strategy-playbook-cover

Free: Assessment

Google updates ads and organic search display on desktop

By Karisa Hamdi

Google updates ads and organic search display on desktop

On Monday, January 13th, Google sent out a tweet announcing that it was going to fully roll out its new ads and organic search display on desktop searches. Google has had this new design across mobile search for the last several months and has decided to fully launch the new display.

Every time Google releases an update it likely causes a bit of fear because no one is 100% sure how the changes will affect their site traffic. However, it’s important to keep in mind that Google's stated purpose is to make the search experience better for its users.

Remember that when users have a good experience, they’re more likely to engage positively with your company.

These new ad and organic search updates are no different. Google is trying to create a better overall experience for users.

But we should still dive deeper into what this can mean for your business.

Ad changes

If you’re used to searching on your desktop, then you’re used to seeing ads displayed like this:

Notice how the ad call-out is the same color as the URL, making it a bit hard to tell what’s an ad and what isn’t. The little green "Ad" box is somewhat camouflaged, hiding in plain sight.

However, with the new update, the ad call-out will now be black, making it a bit easier for searchers to quickly distinguish between an ad and the first search result. Note that the URL is now black as well, but that "Ad" appears prominently in bold.

After reviewing mobile testing results, Google is confident that this change is ready for desktop because “a majority of users found it easier to identify websites and more than two-thirds said it was easier to scan results more quickly.” Google is confident desktop users will feel the same. 

The change does make the ads stand out a bit more, but also provides a cleaner look by removing additional colors, like green, and keeping everything black and white besides key information like the page title, which is still in blue.

Organic search changes

Google’s update to desktop search didn’t stop there. Organic search results are also getting a makeover. Rather than looking like this:

Search results on desktop will now have a favicon next to the page title.

If your site already has a favicon, then Google will pull that, but if you need to add one, Google lays out exactly how you can choose what shows next to your search result.

Google explained that the favicon helps “anchor each result.”

With this addition, searchers will be able to quickly identify brands based on an image they’re used to seeing — or they may be more drawn to a brand based on the favicon.

Should I change anything?

If you’re looking to increase traffic to your website with ads, it’s possible the new ad call-out could affect your traffic, but right now it’s too early to tell. Searchers still need to adapt to the change.

They also need to adapt to seeing the favicon icon next to brand names, and it’s not clear if this will help increase brand recognition, which may increase traffic, or if it will confuse people at first.

However, while both of these changes should have gone into effect earlier this week, right now I can only see them when I go incognito, which means that the change may not have even hit everyone just yet.

At this moment, don’t be too quick to make a change. It’s best to see how searchers react, gather some data, and then decide if any changes are needed — but still be sure you have a favicon selected for the roll-out!

Free: Assessment

Does your website build trust with buyers and bring in revenue?
Take this free 6 question assessment and learn how your website can start living up to its potential.

Topics:

Search Engine Optimization
News
Paid Media
Published on January 17, 2020

Recent Articles

9 SEO Best Practices for Stronger Organic Traffic in 2023
November 18, 2022 • 12 min read
Video SEO: How To Optimize Videos To Drive Traffic to Your Website
May 9, 2022 • 8 min read
37 Eye-opening SEO Statistics To Nail Your 2022 Search Strategy
April 28, 2022 • 10 min read
10 Reasons Why Your Website Is Not Ranking In Google
February 10, 2022 • 15 min read
Google Shares New Tools to Audit Website User Experience
August 12, 2021 • 3 min read
Google: Website Content Quality More Important Than Quantity
August 10, 2021 • 3 min read
How Long Tail Keyword Research Can Drive Business
August 9, 2021 • 7 min read
How to Optimize Videos On Your Business Website for Search
July 23, 2021 • 4 min read
Google: 'Here's how to prepare for the future private web'
July 16, 2021 • 4 min read
Too many internal links in content can confuse Google about site structure
July 9, 2021 • 5 min read
Google July 2021 core update rolling out over next 2 weeks
July 2, 2021 • 4 min read
Inbound Marketing Help: My Traffic And Leads Are Down. What Can I Do?
June 28, 2021 • 5 min read
Finally, Google page experience core update is rolling out
June 18, 2021 • 3 min read
What is a Featured Snippet? [Definition + Examples]
June 10, 2021 • 4 min read
Google June 2021 core update live, July core update coming
June 4, 2021 • 3 min read
Google's June page experience core update will be mobile first, then desktop
May 21, 2021 • 3 min read
Google confirms demise of Q&A search feature, Question Hub lives on
April 26, 2021 • 1 min read
Big Google algorithm update moved to June with new performance report
April 21, 2021 • 4 min read
No, changing page publish dates won't increase Google search rankings
April 10, 2021 • 4 min read
Google: 'zero-click search' claims and data 'misleading'
April 5, 2021 • 6 min read
3 quick SEO fixes that will increase your website rankings right away
March 30, 2021 • 5 min read
10 Google Analytics metrics you absolutely must track (updated)
March 29, 2021 • 5 min read
Meet the new Google My Business review management view
March 20, 2021 • 2 min read
Google Ads help: Top 10 reasons your Google Ads campaigns are failing
March 10, 2021 • 10 min read
Google 'price drop' structured data for e-commerce can grab buyer eyes
March 9, 2021 • 2 min read