There is a theory that has been circling for years that Sponsored Ads impact your SEO efforts. Some people believe that Google or Yahoo! pay-per-click help website owners achieve higher organic rankings.

To go direct to the source, a Google user has asked whether or not this is the case by posting a question on Google groups, a help forum for users of Google. The response from Google was:

“It is very important to note that there is absolutely no connection between being an AdWords advertiser, and having your site appear in the unpaid search results. One does not effect the other in any way. To put it another way, being an AdWords advertiser will neither help nor harm your chances of appearing on the ‘organic’ search engine”

Well there you go straight from the horse’s mouth, a definitive “NO”. You would think that this kind of response would put an end to the discussion, well not a chance. In fact in today’s world of web 2.0 with blogging, forums and an unlimited amount of places to share your opinions this creates even more of a discussion.

Users of Google adwords have stated that they have noticed a drop in organic referrals when they pause their pay per click campaigns, is this just a coincidence? Well there are actually numerous accounts of people that have noticed drops in organic rankings when they pause their pay per click campaigns. Some then notice a return to “normal rankings” once the campaigns are reinstated.

With Google telling us that there is no correlation and then some people actually witnessing drops in rankings who do we believe? I suggest that we be very vigilant in this area as if in fact there is a connection then you would not only be losing out on pay per click traffic when pausing your campaigns but maybe even your free organic traffic as well.

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