Anyone spot anything missing from this picture?
Above the Fold
Builders Warwick is a standard search I use when doing some search engine testing, and the above image shows the results above the fold (ie before you need to start scrolling) on a standard screen. It is an anonymous search, opposed to the personalised results you may see, depending if you are logged into a Google account, had a recent Google cookie etc.
Google is very vocal about the user experience and limiting the number of adverts above the fold. Bit it seems it doesn't follow it's own rules though, as all you can see in the above example is sponsor ad's, or Google Adwords results to be more precise.
The map you can see is part of the new layout for the Google local listings (or map listings, or whatever they are called these days), but you still need to scroll to see any links for them, plus they have now had their phone numbers removed, which a lot of SEO commentators predict will mean fewer leads for small business owners.
Below the Fold
Finally under the map listings, once you have scrolled, you get to the organic listings.
You can then see 4 organic listings at the bottom of the page. In this example, Yell gets the top spot, with mybuilder getting spots 2 and 3.
Conclusion
You probably get enough emails from SEO peeps promising you the world and guaranteeing you number 1 in Google. Now it looks like Google has another idea, pay for it 
In this example, to generate any real return if you needed to show up for this search term would be to pay for a Google Adwords PPC campaign.
Now this is only 1 search, and depending on how and where you search will dictate the results you will see. Plus Google is continually experimenting with layout and tinkering with the search results. But sometimes I think it would be nice to return to the good old list of 10 organic results.
Or would it?
What do you think? Has the regular Google upheaval and tweaking of the search results over the last couple of years impacted the number of leads from Google, or the way you conduct marketing? If so was it for the better or worse?
Maybe it has improved your marketing and ROI, or has it caused you continual confusion and headaches?
As a user, do you like the new Google layout, or do you think there are too many PPC adverts?
