Google Dumps 5.5% of First-Page Results – Were You Affected?

August 23, 2012 -Did you notice that recently Google has been showing just 7 organic search listings on the first page for many searches, instead of the usual 10? This is big news for every business that depends on search engines as a source of traffic and leads. In this article, I'll talk about why this is happening, what it means for you and what you can do about it.

At a high level, we'll cover:

How and why the Google SERPs just changed significantly for a large portion of queries.
Why you need to check your rankings – you may have dropped off the first page for important keywords.
How you can make up for potential losses in traffic, using PPC and other marketing approaches.

What Search Queries are Impacted by the Change?

The SEOmoz blog reported this week that Google had reduced the usual 10 search listings to just 7 on over 18% of Google searches! Prior to August 13, SERPs with 7 organic search results were practically nonexistent. But on 8/13, that number jumped to 10.7% and then, the following day, to 18.3%. Now roughly 6% of organic search listings are wiped out of existence. A 30% reduction of organic listings on 18.3% of SERPs approximately equals wiping out 5.5% of all first page organic listings!

I quickly conducted my own investigation into WordStream.com’s own top 200 organic keyword listings to try to determine what kinds of keyword searches were impacted by the change...

Visit The WordStream Blog to read the rest of this article.