If you buy Google Ads, can you get special treatment?
Google has long said that buying AdWords ads doesn’t help your rankings in the search results. But someone recently asked why his AdWords rep couldn’t help answer some questions about his organic rankings.
Does participating in Google Ads (Google’s Pay Per Click or PPC program) help your non-PPC rankings?
The corollary to that is the question:
Does Google punish sites that don’t pay them for for Google Ads by lowering their rankings, thus encouraging participation in Ads where Google makes money?
The answer is No. Always has been and always will. The simple reason is that doing this would reduce the relevance of Google’s main organic rankings. Consequently, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, or another search engine would unseat them as the Big Dog of search.
More savvy searchers typically skip over the PPC ads because they understand the sponsored links up top aren’t there because they’re the most relevant match for your search. Those top-ranking PPC links are there largely because the advertiser is willing to pay more than others for your click.
A blog post over at WSI said it well:
Doing AdWords does NOT directly help or effect rankings. Integrity in this area is a cornerstone of Google’s business. If this were violated it would damage Google beyond repair, not to mention a slew of legal actions. Google would never risk those consequences. Google has stated over and over that AdWords advertising will not affect rankings. I don’t always believe Google but….
I have been managing Adwords and doing search engine optimization for my clients for many years. I have managed every combination of clients that do or don’t do AdWords combined with SEO. There have also been cases where SEO clients stop doing AdWords, or start doing AdWords. I can say that I have never seen anything that indicated that AdWords affected rankings.
There are a number of reputable SEO research firms that study this issue and every one of them has come to the same conclusion: AdWords does not affect rankings.
My experience is completely in agreement with that assessment.
There’s a place for Google Ads, of course. And it’s true that if you show up in both the ads and the organic results on the first page it super-validates you as a site that searchers will want to click on first. But Google Ads itself has no impact on how highly you rank in the organic results.
Bottom Line: Google Ads won’t help your organic rankings. Only SEO can do that.
Bill and his team are awesome very thorough and efficient and great following up /customer service.
Rank Magic
Thanks, Jackie. I'm looking forward to more and more success for your visibility.
April 5, 2023
Karen M.
As a website designer, I value the depth and breadth of knowledge Rank Magic offers to give a client the very best Search Engine Optimization results. They not only know this field inside and out but are a pleasure to work with!!
Rank Magic
Thanks for your kind words, Karen. I'm looking forward to our collaboration for your client.
January 16, 2023
Jamie F
Amazing Service! Bill and rank magic took my business to the next level by cleaning up my business information across the internet. My google search referrals went up 39 percent in just months of using RanK Magic!
Rank Magic
Thanks, Jamie. I'm thrilled, too, with your results so far. I look forward to continued improvement.
September 30, 2022
Jennifer N.
We are absolutely thrilled with the results we have gotten while working with Rank Magic. The nature of this type of marketing makes it a little challenging to measure results. However, for us we have a pretty solid way to know that this is working. Since starting with Rank Magic we have been able to reduce our monthly spend on our paid advertising because our organic traffic has increased to the number of visits we used to get on the paid traffic. We would recommend Bill and his team to anyone who wants to increase their website traffic and grow their business
Rank Magic
Thanks, Jen. I'm pleased with what w've achieved for you so far and look forward to increasing your visibility and traffic even more.
March 10, 2022
Zuri, P G
Bill offered very thorough information in my consultation and provided me with varying levels of information on how to get started getting the best from my website. Looking forward to working with Rank Magic in the future.
Rank Magic
Thanks, Zuri. If you plan to act on any notes you took during your audit, feel free to call me with questions; there's no need to wait until we're working together on a billable basis. I'm eager to see you showing up on Google.
Doing AdWords does NOT directly help or effect rankings. Integrity in this area is a cornerstone of Google’s business. If this were violated it would damage Google beyond repair, not to mention a slew of legal actions. Google would never risk those consequences. Google has stated over and over that AdWords advertising will not affect rankings. I don’t always believe Google but….
The answer is No. Always has been and always will. The simple reason is that doing this would reduce the relevance of Google’s main organic rankings. Consequently, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, or another search engine would unseat them as the Big Dog of search.