What is Google Top Heavy Update?
The Google Top Heavy Update is a major algorithm update intended to reduce the rankings of sites that show too many ads above the fold.
Above the fold refers to the content at the top area of a webpage, which the visitor sees the moment they land on the webpage.
The Top Heavy Update was released on January 19, 2012. It was later updated on October 9, 2012, and refreshed on February 6, 2014.
In its official documentation, Google referred to the update as the Page Layout Algorithm Improvement. Google mentioned that it would affect the following sites.
- Sites that don’t have a lot of visible content above the fold.
- Sites that dedicate most of the screen above the fold to ads.