Is Google testing placing ads between organic search results?
Patrick Stox, Ahrefs product advisor, technical SEO and brand ambassador, first noticed that sponsored posts have started appearing where the third and fifth organic positions normally run.
He shared a screenshot of the SERP on X:
Here’s a video of it Stox shared on X:
Lidia Infante found it a few hours earlier:
Why we care. Expanding this experiment could potentially lead to more clicks for advertisers in areas that have always been organic spots in Google Search. However, this is potentially more bad news for SEOs as Google continues its ongoing trend of removing and minimizing organic search real estate. It could also be bad for users who are already complaining about the quality of Google Search results, potentially leading to negative user experiences.
What Google is saying. Google’s Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin responded on X, neither confirming nor denying this is a test. But she also didn’t call it a bug:
- “We’re regularly experimenting and don’t have anything more to share at this point.”
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