Matt Cutts today revealed yet another Google algorithm update which will effect websites with above the fold advertisements.
Released on the Webmaster Central blog, matt Cutts wrote “We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites that place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page.”
This change should only effect about 1% of global searches meaning only 1 in 100 searches will be affected. However the last above the fold algorithm change appeared to also effect the analytical data available on those sites.
This means any sites that blatantly put adverts adverts above the pages relevant information will see some drop in rankings, however, once changes are made rankings should come back, this may take a few weeks as the rollout of the algorithm updates.