Google has announced two major changes to its Adwords algorithm that are designed to improve quality.

The firm revealed that it has enhanced its quality score calculation to now take into account ad position when calculating an ad’s click-through rate, which will result in a more accurate quality score.

Google said that this change will help better evaluate the precise quality of consumers’ ads regardless of their position on a page.

The second change Google has enacted is in the criteria for top paid search listings which now means that if an ad meets the quality threshold, it can be shown in a prominent position irrespective of overall rank.

Previously an ad in a lower position could not overtake another in a higher position to be featured in paid listings or the on the top yellow bar on the search results page.

Google maintained that this change “ensures that quality plays an even more important role in determining the ads that show in those prominent positions”.