Google is launching an algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a webpage and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on a result. The change will affect webstes which make it difficult for users to find the actual content and have to scroll down the page past a slew of ads. So sites that don't have much content "above-the-fold" can be affected by this change.

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 who 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 new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads.

This algorithmic change noticeably affects less than 1% of searches globally, Google added.