Do Flash Ads Hurt Page Credibility for Google Rankings?

[J_Mac]

I had two pages on different sites that ranked well for a couple of different keywords (pos #1 & #3) in the Google serps.

I decided to try and take advantage by placing a skyscraper flash ad promoting products related to the content and within a few weeks saw my rankings drop 6-14 places.

After a few more weeks of no recovery I removed the banners and the formerly #1 positioned page returned to #2, but the 3# page remains behind.

Does Google penalize or reward less for pages that host flash ads?

[tedster]

I strongly doubt it - although your anecdotal evidence is intriguing. A couple of ideas come to mind:

- Did your Flash Ad change the top-of-page code significantly?
- Did the link pass PR?
- Was there more than one link embedded in the movie? Any hidden text?
- Was there an affiliate code involved?
- Did many other sites run the same ad?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Did your Flash Ad change the top-of-page code significantly?

This is a good point Ted. Quite often people will say all I did was remove/add this and my google position changed. Many changes to a web page affect the ordering of the text content in some way and this can affect results.

[J_Mac]

1. Did your Flash Ad change the top-of-page code significantly?
2. Did the link pass PR?
3. Was there more than one link embedded in the movie? Any hidden text?
4. Was there an affiliate code involved?
5. Did many other sites run the same ad?

1. No placement was in the body.
2. Yes - I think
3. No
4. No
5. No, but I ran the banner on about 20 pages of one site.