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Google Increases Width of Main Search Results Column

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google increases search results widthGoogle has made a major change to the search results column.  In a major redesign of the search results appearance, Google has significantly increased the width of the column in the main search results column, impacting everything Google displays in that column.

Google has increased the column for organic search results to about 600 pixels from 500 pixels.  The amount of whitespace between the results and features in the right sidebar has decreased by 5 pixels, from 65 pixels to only 60.

Featured snippets, local packs and AdWords are all impacted by this new change.

First, here is a comparison side by side (click to see full size):

google search results new width comparison2

And here it is a bit easier to see the change in width (click to see full size):

google search results new width comparison

What does this mean for organic results?  With the shift in width, it could actually move search results higher on the pages, if some of the multi-line listings end up needing one less line.

Many of the features in the main search results column are reduced in height, meaning that some organic results, depending on the particular search query, could be pushed up on the page.  This is great news, especially for those who were disappointed when Google changed the search results to add 4 AdWords ads at the top of the results page.

This also means there is a new title length!  So instead of trying to work within 55-60 characters maximum, you now have 70 characters before Google will add the ellipses (…)  Descriptions are increased by 16-20 characters. For all the specifics of the new title and description length for SEO, you can find the new title and description character lengths here.

Featured snippets are also increased, although it doesn’t appear that the amount of text within the box itself has changed.  Instead, the height is reduced significantly.  But the title is also increased.  The width for featured snippets is now 646 pixels wide (46 pixels wider than the regular organic search results), up from 556 pixels.

google width featured snippets

Local map packs are also increased and the new packs are the same dimensions as the featured snippets.  For local SEOs, there’s more info specific to the new wider 3-packs here.  Here is the comparison between the two versions.

google width local

The width of features in the right hand column, such as Google’s knowledge panel, are still the same width and were not adjusted at all.

AdWords is now also showing wider AdWords ads in the search results too.

adwords wider 3

It seems as though this has gone live to many searchers in the last day or two, but may have been in testing starting a week ago.  It is rolling out internationally as well, as we are seeing it on Google.co.in, Google.co.uk, Google.ca, Google.co.au and many others that we tried.  And it is appearing in multiple languages too.  It is clearly not a 1% test, which is the usual percentage of search results that get a Google test.  [Update: At least one person is reporting they haven’t seen it roll out yet earlier today but saw it in testing.]

It is showing both signed in and incognito.  For reference, showing both incognito and logged in.

google search results new width signed in google search results new width incognito

Jonathan Jones was the first to spot the column width change [added: Andrea Pernici spotted it a day earlier].  I did notice that Google had changed the formatting of their Product Listing Ads at the top of the search results, which seems to be related.

I have reached out to Google and will update when I know more.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post
Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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Comments

  2. Right this morning it’s arrived also in Google Italy: what a big news! I think that Google must do this change after adding 4 AdWords ads at the top of the results page.

  3. I never see that coming. Are you sure the there gonna be a new title and meta desc length? Because from your ‘princess leila’ screenshots, I don’t see the title or the desc being extended in the new design.

  4. Great spot and thanks for posting.

    Interestingly on mobile for your Pay Day Loans example (linked to in this post) , I’m seeing the increased 70 characters title tag length but the same/old ~ 115 characters for the meta description.

    That’s a bit surprising…. and that will likely make it more challenging writing compelling meta descriptions for both computers and mobile user.

    Do you see the same as me?

    • I see the longer title on mobile.

      In desktop, Google didn’t increase the overall amount of description text, just the amount that shows on the first line (which leaves the second line only half filled). I suspect this will change. And yes, I see shorter descriptions in mobile. It could be that SEOs will become expert at writing descriptions that are two sentences and conveniently break at the mobile break point 🙂

      • I can see the width of the Search Result page. But, in title i can see only 60 characters length and see the same length of description in organic search result.

        • I am seeing longer titles still. But remember many people still have their title tags set to be shorter. It is mostly those sites that have already optimized titles (think super competitive market areas) or titles where people had longer ones in the first place that were never “SEOized” to the former title length.

  5. For me the release was rolled out yesterday in The Netherlands. I knew something fishy was going on with the titles and meta descriptions 🙂

    Thanks for the write-up Jennifer!

Trackbacks

  1. […] up a little less space, so maybe we'll get some 3-pack above the fold again in more searches. Here's the article for anyone who'd like to read more. There's several before and after comparisons so you can see […]