Google - In with the new and out with the old

It's amazing what small changes to a website can accomplish. Sometimes what seems like a trivial change in design can actually turn out to produce massive results. Remember, it isn't a serious redesign we are talking about, just some carefully considered changes that have far reaching effects. Lately there has been a ton of buzz about the new Google design and these changes are great examples of what I'm talking about.

If you take a look at the screenshots you can see the old versus new Google design.

Old Google Design

New Google Design

The results are now centered and extra white space was removed. This gives the site the flexibility to add links on the left and makes the content more comfortable to view.
Google isn't letting anything distract their users from what they want to do. By getting rid of "Web", they can stay focused on the links and nothing else. Google is streamlining this site for searches without any extras at all. In doing so, Google is staying focused, staying simple, and staying true to their intent.
This subtle design change links the ads on the right hand side to the ones on top and makes them more likely to be noticed. This area typically gets less attention and you can see how Google is trying to change that. Google could effectively increase traffic for their advertisers with what seems to be a microscopic change.
By removing this white space, Google was able to add one sponsored link on the right-hand side and an additional organic listing in the center. The result is more content in front of their users.
These links are more prominent on the left hand side making them more accessible. Using them helps people narrow their searches and ultimately leads to them spending more time on Google. The result will be deeper traffic for Google inevitably resulting in more clicks on sponsored links.

Taking all of this into account, you can see how some seemingly minor changes can have dramatic effects on what your website is doing for your visitors and for your business. This doesn't mean that you need to go immediately to your site and begin examining every detail. First decide if there is a strategic necessity to realign your website. If so, figure out what you need to accomplish and remember that you may be able to get there with only microscopic alterations.

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