When you click a result in Google’s SERPs, you expect the page to answer your question. That sounds obvious, since answering questions is the reason Google exists. But now and then you land on a page with so many ads that you can’t find the content you came for.
You could argue that ads are easy to scroll past and that they bring in good money, especially if your site depends on them. Badly placed ads can still cost you more than they earn. Google’s Top Heavy algorithm update was built to keep pages stacked with ads at the top out of the top of Google’s SERPs. Below, we explain how the Top Heavy update works, which sites are at risk, and what to do to win back your rankings if you were hit.
Launch Date: January 19, 2012
The first version of the Top Heavy update rolled out in January 2012. Google has refreshed the algorithm twice since then: once in October 2012 and again in February 2014.
Which pages the Top Heavy update hit
The main trigger for Google’s Top Heavy update is too much advertising above the fold. Picture a Google user who clicks through from the SERPs and gets hit with so many ads that none of your content is visible until they scroll. That’s a problem. Google calls a page like this “top heavy”: the top of the page is so full of ads that a new visitor can’t see any content when it first loads. To find the information they came for, they have to scroll down below the fold first, past every ad in the way.
This is a frustrating experience for anyone. Google wants finding information to be as easy as possible, and giving people accurate, relevant answers is what sets it apart from other search engines. When Google sends a searcher to a page buried in ads, it fails at that main goal, and the page looks spammy and hard to trust as well. Google tries to keep pages like this out of its top spots, so it follows that pages and sites with top-heavy ad layouts get ranked lower until they give visitors a better experience with fewer ads up top.
How the Top Heavy update works
If you run a site, it’s natural to show ads for extra income. Google AdSense places ads targeted to your audience. Put them at the top, visitors see them, some click, and you get paid.
That is exactly the behavior the Top Heavy update penalizes. Google doesn’t want you to make users work to reach the content they came for. When they have to scroll past ads to get to it, many will leave your site, and leave annoyed. Whether you use AdSense or another ad platform, make sure your ads aren’t packed so tightly at the top of your pages that visitors can’t easily see your content.
The update appears to target only static ads. Ads running down the sides of your pages, or a pop-up that visitors can close with one click, shouldn’t cause trouble with this update (though Google’s separate 2017 intrusive interstitials update does count pop-ups against mobile pages).
Recovering from the Top Heavy update
Google said each of the first two versions of the Top Heavy algorithm affected less than one percent of searches. Still, if you run a lot of ads above the fold and your Google rankings have dropped noticeably, your site could be in that small group. Here are a few ways to improve the experience on your pages and get back to the top of the SERPs.
Cut the ads at the top of your pages
The simplest fix is removing ads from above the fold. People come for your content; that content is why Google sent them to you.
Check your ad-to-content ratio
Load your pages at common screen sizes to see whether there’s enough content above the fold to hold a visitor’s attention. Chrome DevTools has a device mode that does this, and you can also just resize your browser window. Seeing each page the way visitors do tells you which ads to remove, if any. Check every page: if the first screen shows too many ads and too little content, take some of the ads out.
Keeping ads from costing you rankings
Recovering from the Top Heavy update isn’t very hard. Once you’ve removed the excess ads and Google has recrawled your site, your rankings should start to climb. The point is simple. Google wants to give searchers the best results, and under the Top Heavy update, pages that put content first outrank pages loaded with ads at the top. Keep your above-the-fold ads at a reasonable level and this update shouldn’t give you anything to worry about.