If you haven't heard, it was recently announced that Google will be removing some author photos from search. At first many web developers may not think much of this, but it's going to have some pretty serious implications. Part of the reason Google originally introduced author photos was to create authority for certain links.
There are many speculations about this sudden change and the reasoning behind it. One school of thought believes that the change might be centered around user experience, and ties in with the search engines new 'mobile first' management strategy. The idea is that, eventually, mobile users will surpass desktop users making it the most important market. Because of this, Google is aiming to unify the site into a single site that is mobile and desktop friendly.
Without these pics, marketers and developers may quickly find their hit counts going down. For people who rely on Adsense or other sorts of monetization, this could be devastating. So what do you do if you've lost your author pic in Google searches and know that it's adversely affecting you? You're going to have find other ways to focus your SEO efforts.
Studies have shown that users are drawn to pictures and search results that contain pictures find that their CTR increases at an astounding rate. In some cases the change is over 150%, and even in the lowest range a change of 30% is very impressive. This means that ads, even if they occupy the top three search spots, would be far less valuable.
This is most likely one of the driving factors in the decision to eliminate author pictures from search results. This blow to SEO and online marketers will build the need to find more innovative ways to drive traffic to their site and keep their CTR up. Of course, lowered revenue due to the advantage author images affords might be one of the reasons Google has announced its plan to remove them from search results.
The official reason given me the internet giant was that the change was simply due to their new policy dubbed 'Mobile First'. The vision behind this new thought process comes from the belief that mobile users will surpass desktop users this year, and the companies aim is to create one unified site that caters to all platforms. That, coupled with a recent study that showed users preferred no images in their searches was the stated reason.
There are many speculations about this sudden change and the reasoning behind it. One school of thought believes that the change might be centered around user experience, and ties in with the search engines new 'mobile first' management strategy. The idea is that, eventually, mobile users will surpass desktop users making it the most important market. Because of this, Google is aiming to unify the site into a single site that is mobile and desktop friendly.
Without these pics, marketers and developers may quickly find their hit counts going down. For people who rely on Adsense or other sorts of monetization, this could be devastating. So what do you do if you've lost your author pic in Google searches and know that it's adversely affecting you? You're going to have find other ways to focus your SEO efforts.
Studies have shown that users are drawn to pictures and search results that contain pictures find that their CTR increases at an astounding rate. In some cases the change is over 150%, and even in the lowest range a change of 30% is very impressive. This means that ads, even if they occupy the top three search spots, would be far less valuable.
This is most likely one of the driving factors in the decision to eliminate author pictures from search results. This blow to SEO and online marketers will build the need to find more innovative ways to drive traffic to their site and keep their CTR up. Of course, lowered revenue due to the advantage author images affords might be one of the reasons Google has announced its plan to remove them from search results.
The official reason given me the internet giant was that the change was simply due to their new policy dubbed 'Mobile First'. The vision behind this new thought process comes from the belief that mobile users will surpass desktop users this year, and the companies aim is to create one unified site that caters to all platforms. That, coupled with a recent study that showed users preferred no images in their searches was the stated reason.
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