| 08.19.05
Google Testing SERP Changes
 By Jason Lee Miller
Google appears to be in a major retooling effort of their results pages. Just a day after the buzz leapt from search blog to search blog about Google putting 3 sponsored links at the top instead of two, Media Post's Shankar Gupta tells us that may just be the tip of the iceberg.
According to Gupta, Google is experimenting with the organic results with a "select group of users on a test basis." A second set of results may be in the works to add a more robust and contextualized search experience.
Gupta gives the example.
"…a search for "us" might return results related to the United States, and the abbreviation "U.S." at the top of the natural results, but then insert results relating to the keywords "US Weekly" on the bottom of the organic results page."
The related term search results will not be sponsored links, according to a Google source.
Yesterday, Danny Sullivan's camp at Search Engine Watch speculated about another apparent Google SERP tweak. While in the past, Google has posted two sponsored links, screen shots posted in SEW showed the sudden emergence of three sponsored links.
Speculation moved even to cover a conditional listing, posting either 2 or 3 links "based on the commercialness" of the query."
Both developments could mean a world of difference for search engine marketing strategies and potential conversion rates.
About the Author:
Jason L. Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
