An intriguing study has emerged from the renowned optimizer Cyrus Shepard, founder of Zyppy SEO. He took a hundred websites, divided them into winners and losers due to Google’s recent updates, and attempted to discern what unites them.
For instance, most ‘losing’ sites featured:
- Footer ads;
- Video ads;
- Stock images;
- Giant mega-menus (over 30 items);
- Excessive ad volume;
- Push notifications;
- Unclear logo;
- Significant number of affiliate links;
- and numerous other UX elements and factors (see the screenshot below).
As we can see there are a lot of features that have to do with website navigation and even link building. Moreover, the presence of several negative elements simultaneously increases the likelihood of ranking deterioration (multiplication effect).
Some research findings are quite unexpected. For instance, having a “Privacy Policy” was found to be a weak negative factor. Shepard explains that spammers primarily place such pages on their websites.
There’s plenty to read and ponder over. Here’s the link to the study. By the way, Google is not the only search engine that you can use. Check out our article where we review some other alternatives.
