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39% Traffic Drop with Google Page Layout Panda Update

February 1, 2012 by Amit Bhawani 70 Comments

Last week there seems to be another Google Panda Update where in the blogs which were having many advertisements when compared to content were penalized and we also saw a huge drop in our blogs traffic. There were always speculations that blogs which has many ad units when compared to the content would get penalized but there was no clear figure on how much % should be there. We initially thought that there was some issue with the server the very first day but since the traffic decreased went down everyday, we found that this is not a normal issue and same was confirmed on QOT which also has the same experience.

Last year many blogs had reported that Google will soon come up with an update on this and they would penalize all the blogs which would have more ads over content and this has finally been applied. Here is a screenshot of our blog’s traffic stats which clearly states that the traffic has gone down drastically and there is no update from Official Google Team on this.

Analytics Traffic Stats

We always have had a ad unit below the blog post titles and also on the sidebar which was of 300×250 ad size, but thanks to the suggestions from Google Adsense Team, we have had also implemented a Google Ad Unit of 728×90 next to logo which seem to have created this issue, because that counted the total number of ads above the fold to 3 which infact gives a bad reader experience. Hence in order to fix this we have removed the ad next to the logo and tried to move the 300×250 ad almost below the fold.

As of now you can check out the Browser Size tool from google which gives you a clear representation on how many ads would a ready see when they are on a specific browser resolution and this is the tool which clearly shows you that most of the readers who have resolution less than 800px always see a higher percentage of your advertisements and not your blog content, which is a very bad user experience. Hence in order to fix this you need to move all the ads below the fold if possible or try to create a better balance in this to ensure that you don’t get this penalty.

We will keep you updated on how we will be fixing this panda update and the progress on the same. In case we find some interesting stuff we will post about the same. Meanwhile its suggested for you to remove all the advertisements from your blogs which don’t pay you much like the Infolinks or Kontera ad units because they are just killing the reader experience and just make it look like an Made for Ads site.

Update : If you check out the below stats graph you would find that the traffic was back and this could be probably because the automatic algo would have scanned the blog for changes and the traffic / rankings would have been set back to the previous ones.

Traffic Hike Stats

You can also read the following comments where other users have also made a few changes to their blog layouts and found that the traffic is actually increasing when you reduce the ads above the fold.

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About

My name is Amit Bhawani and here I like to share my internet/tech experience with my online readers. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram at @AmitBhawani I am also the Editor-in-Chief of PhoneRadar & Master Gadgets

About Amit Bhawani

My name is Amit Bhawani and here I like to share my internet/tech experience with my online readers. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram at @AmitBhawani

Comments

  1. Jai says

    February 1, 2012 at 8:14 pm

    How to over come this, do you want me to remove the 780 x 90 ad in the header.. even I am facing the issue

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 1, 2012 at 8:24 pm

      Just give a try and reduce as many ad units possible from above the fold and it should work.

      Reply
    • Tylor says

      February 26, 2012 at 8:20 am

      They have panalized those websites more which have low content compared to advertisments.
      So along with reducing the ad units first…look after your content and its quality. If you improve that then it will effect you lesser.

      Reply
  2. Pratik says

    February 1, 2012 at 8:31 pm

    Nice change for users of having low resolution but not for website publishers…Although in the long run,It will helpful to every Googlers…

    Reply
  3. Pratik says

    February 1, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    Nice change for users having low resolution but not for web publishers.I think in long run,still It will be beneficial for every Googler.

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 2, 2012 at 8:36 am

      yes!

      Reply
  4. Arun rana says

    February 1, 2012 at 8:50 pm

    hi ..I removed header ad unit from my blog but not getting the traffic as earlier ..

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 2, 2012 at 8:36 am

      You need to submit a reconsideration request to Google in order to fix the issue once you have made many changes to your blog.

      Reply
  5. Rahul says

    February 1, 2012 at 9:02 pm

    Where is the advert? I have more ads on my sites all of them not affected.

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 2, 2012 at 8:37 am

      Probably you got lucky that the panda effect was not applied to your blog.

      Reply
  6. aatif says

    February 1, 2012 at 9:19 pm

    It will be interesting to see how you overcome this , And I will expect a post on it when you get recovered 🙂

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 2, 2012 at 8:37 am

      will try to do it.

      Reply
  7. rohit kothari says

    February 1, 2012 at 9:29 pm

    what does it really means is google want from us to remove more ads?? or anything else they only allow 3 ad unit per page now what is the mean of this update

    Reply
  8. Anish KS says

    February 1, 2012 at 9:41 pm

    Me too facing a traffic drop, but not as huge like this, i have a 10 % Lose. Adsense revenue also affected. 🙁

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 2, 2012 at 8:36 am

      Its obvious adsense would also get affected when the traffic drops.

      Reply
  9. Irfan says

    February 1, 2012 at 10:38 pm

    I have been told in twitter a week back that new Google Panda update is penalizing blog’s having more ads then content since then i applied few changes in my blog and the traffic didn’t get down. I hope it will not get penalized in future. Can you please check my blog’s layout and tell me if i’m on right path?

    Reply
  10. Irfan says

    February 1, 2012 at 10:40 pm

    I have been told in twitter a week back that new Google Panda update is penalizing blog’s having more ads then content since then i applied few changes in my blog and the traffic didn’t get down. I hope it will not get penalized in future. Can you please check my blog’s layout and tell me if i’m on right path?

    Regards,
    Irfan

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 2, 2012 at 8:35 am

      You can still remove the link ads if they are not paying good because they appear in the low resolution too.

      Reply
      • Irfan says

        February 2, 2012 at 10:28 pm

        Sure things. 🙂

        Reply
  11. Sagar says

    February 1, 2012 at 11:17 pm

    My blog is also badly affected by this update, hope it recover’s soon. Infolinks is just a waste of time, creates a very bad impression, the ads are annoying and fetch you only a few cents.

    Reply
  12. comptricks says

    February 1, 2012 at 11:41 pm

    i have faced this issue too. before i was getting very good traffic and after panda all goes like hell. how to overcome effect of google panda update?

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 2, 2012 at 8:38 am

      Check out our previous article on this.

      Reply
  13. venkat says

    February 2, 2012 at 8:22 am

    Hi amit you removed the header which takes lot of space, how long will you keep the same page layout.

    Reply
  14. Techstic says

    February 2, 2012 at 12:05 pm

    Hi, Content means only text, or it includes site logo, nav menus and site bar content, should we remove our logos and other stuffs

    Reply
  15. shivam shrotriya says

    February 2, 2012 at 2:24 pm

    sir, I am also removed header ad unit from my blog but not getting the traffic from many day.. and now i dnt knw what i do??

    Reply
  16. Renuka says

    February 2, 2012 at 9:02 pm

    For me nothing change actually my traffic has increase upto 7-10%.. 🙂

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 3, 2012 at 9:31 am

      Good for you!

      Reply
  17. Avinash Kumpati says

    February 2, 2012 at 10:13 pm

    I agree to the last point of removing infolinks or Kontera kind of ad units from all the blogs which kill user experience literally. They just don’t add any thing (at least to my blog).

    Reply
  18. Sandeep Kumar says

    February 2, 2012 at 10:14 pm

    they are penalizing sites which have heavy ads above the fold. Is there anything else under PANDA?

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 3, 2012 at 9:31 am

      Many more Panda updates to come.

      Reply
  19. Santhosh says

    February 3, 2012 at 9:04 am

    Thanks, i remove my all ads.

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 3, 2012 at 9:30 am

      Why would you remove all the ads?

      Reply
  20. arunii says

    February 3, 2012 at 11:20 am

    Is this (google panda ) the main reason for very few posts from amitbhawani.com as i regularly visit this blog but i came here after long time ? Why this blog is not updated as earlier

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 3, 2012 at 1:43 pm

      yes thats one of the main reason because i have lost the main interest on this blog.

      Reply
  21. Coupon Codes says

    February 3, 2012 at 3:28 pm

    One of my website traffic dropped to 10%
    daily traffic of 5000 visitors to 500…
    i am fed up with google and Gadsense policy, from these updates i am losing my interest and it breaks all my concentration. what should i do?
    do you think starting ecommerce site helps bcoz by this i dont have to rely on adsense
    relying only on adsense is like putting all eggs in one basket.
    please help

    Reply
  22. Tushar says

    February 5, 2012 at 5:16 pm

    I really didn’t find any significance difference n my site traffic. May be they consider the bounce rate.

    Reply
  23. kathijabanu says

    February 5, 2012 at 8:30 pm

    hello,

    I launched a new website for adsense.I placed 2 banner and 2 link unit ads.please tell me how to get more traffic to my site?
    please tell website promotion tools.

    Reply
  24. kathijabanu says

    February 5, 2012 at 8:33 pm

    hello,
    I launched a new website for adsense before 4 months.please tell me how to get more traffic to my site?

    Reply
  25. Rohith says

    February 7, 2012 at 6:08 pm

    One of my site got hit by this Google panda page layout update and I removed the Ad unit below the title and placed on the sidebar top. After 4 days my site started to get search traffic and now its completely recovered from this update.

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 8, 2012 at 9:25 am

      Thats good to know, almost the same case with us too.

      Reply
  26. seo company says

    February 8, 2012 at 4:38 pm

    this is very disappointing for adsense users. on one hand Google is penalizing the sites which have more ads above the post, on the other hand its stuffing more and more ads in SERPs. search google for phrases like cheap loans, buy home, credit card etc.at Google. you will find only ads above the fold. on his own search engine, Google is stuffing more and more ads!
    Dont you think amit that this will definitely hurt adsense earners?

    Reply
  27. Sachinkundu says

    February 12, 2012 at 12:11 am

    Its nor good step. I know more ads cause bad user experience but 3 ads are not more.Why We need to again and again optimize our blog.

    Reply
  28. WildHacker says

    February 13, 2012 at 8:20 pm

    I also faced same problem in last 2-3 months, my 50% traffic droped in just few days..now after 2 months effect my blog again came back on track…

    Hope it ll not happened again …..

    Reply
  29. ved prakash joshi says

    February 14, 2012 at 7:00 pm

    amit , you make a mistake. so you are facing
    But Why not rewrite some posts of this blog and promote
    infact you have real followers also , what ever u will write
    try to recover it
    I hope for best

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      February 15, 2012 at 6:04 pm

      Will work on it, no time actually!

      Reply
  30. charmi2008 says

    February 19, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    Yes these are the facts of google these days.Amit you are right. Many blogs are facing these changes,

    Reply
  31. Navin says

    February 23, 2012 at 1:57 am

    Amit, thanks for the suggestion buddy, I really adore you and guys at QOT. AFter getting slapped by new algo change I had to remove my beloved Google 728×90 and BSA custom 265×90 ad solts, my revenue was not toomuch but still affected. 🙂

    Reply
  32. Alan says

    February 25, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    It’s curious.I have some sites with too much ads above the fold, and fortunately, they have nit been affected by this update. Just in case, I have drastically changed the structure and now there’s a lot more content above the fold and I have pushed down the ads. I hope in the next revision of Panda my sites can make it trough again.
    Thanks for sharing your opinions and experience about this algorithmic adjustment.

    Reply
  33. Sid says

    March 1, 2012 at 8:42 am

    Same happened to my Blog, Removed the 768 Add from the top. And try to use some of your tips to fight with evil Panda 🙂

    Reply
  34. ravi says

    March 12, 2012 at 7:22 am

    hi. can anyone describe be that what should be the best ad placement after this panda update?? plz

    Reply
  35. Osho Garg says

    March 12, 2012 at 9:31 am

    My Blog Is Ad Free This Means My Blog Is Safe From Panda ??

    Reply
    • Amit Bhawani says

      March 15, 2012 at 11:13 am

      Kind of yes but not fully.

      Reply
    • Manu says

      March 30, 2012 at 11:27 am

      My website is too ad free , but still not improvement in traffic .

      Reply
  36. mahesh says

    March 30, 2012 at 11:06 am

    Great , congratulations amit for back visitors.

    Reply
  37. Osho Garg says

    March 30, 2012 at 11:34 am

    My Blog Traffic Increase More Than 20% After Every Panda Update 😀

    Reply
  38. Ronak mathur says

    March 30, 2012 at 11:49 am

    Hey amit i am also not getting traffic…….pls provide me inforrmation how to increase traffic….

    Reply
  39. Zenil Shroff says

    March 30, 2012 at 12:51 pm

    Well i am not alone in the boat, my traffic dropped by nearly 35% since last week, i was lucky to be spared by panda everytime, but since last week i don’t know what happened, there has been severe drop in my traffic. The top pages are performing as it is, its just that no. of impressions that were resulting in search has decreased.

    Reply
  40. Amit Shaw says

    March 30, 2012 at 2:46 pm

    My Blog is 3Months Old with 150+ Article but i am not getting visitor. Is there any tips for me to gain visitor?
    I am not very much expert in SEO and all. Thanks

    Reply
  41. Umar Farooque says

    March 30, 2012 at 3:26 pm

    Ohhhh, I can’t believe even now you have such a high Traffic Sir, GREAT….

    Reply
  42. Amit says

    March 30, 2012 at 5:51 pm

    Hmmm, Thanks for the suggestion , now i have also removed the 728×90 next to logo and shifted the ad unit to to bottom of sidebar. Thankyou.

    Reply
  43. Amit says

    April 2, 2012 at 10:52 am

    what a heck? They have so many ads on their search results page and Now they are telling us not to do that ..This is silly

    Reply
  44. KK says

    April 2, 2012 at 10:57 am

    I was researching about the reason for reduction in traffic and landed in your website. I did changes as per your suggestion and waiting to see the traffic changes. Will update later, if there are any improvements.

    Reply
  45. Pavan Somu says

    April 2, 2012 at 2:01 pm

    I didn’t get affect at this time. But I will keep the points in mind to avoid further.

    Reply
  46. Rahul Tilloo says

    April 10, 2012 at 12:55 pm

    I think my friend it’s not just the panda only, the Google Zebra which is personalization of Google SE is also bringing down the traffic of many websites.So it’s now become really important to be proactive on Google Plus.

    Reply
  47. CheapTravelPackages says

    April 17, 2012 at 3:40 pm

    Hello,
    This google panda update really affected many blogs and sites, mine site traffic come down to 800 to 1000 from 1500 daily, this is really a bad drop in traffic.

    Thanks for sharing this update

    Reply
  48. Sanal says

    April 27, 2012 at 3:39 pm

    1800 visitors lost/day for one of my blog. But traffic increased for my tutorial blog.

    Reply
  49. Rajandran R says

    April 28, 2012 at 7:57 am

    Does this Google panda always does bad thing to every one? Iam feared of loosing my business because of an update. Its time to go diversified.

    Reply
  50. Rahul says

    September 10, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    dear sir,
    I m not getting much traffic on my blog……so can you pls tell me how to incrase blog traffic…….please….

    Reply
  51. NiTiN says

    July 9, 2013 at 3:48 pm

    www DOT fullformof DOT org
    i have a blog which name is mentioned above (remove DOT ans spaces).
    and tell me that, this blog/site is following the policy of adsense

    Reply

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