Google Adwords and SEO

Hey folks,

I've heard of people buying adwords to "solidify" their SERP rankings.

What is the general thought on this?

I have discovered a misleading adword campaign we are running which is creating a large bounce rate on the adwords targeted landing page. I'm not sure how long it's been going for but our rankings have declined for this particular site in the last few months as well.

Could these be related?

Thanks for the help!

I actually asked this same question on this forum and the answer that I recieved, and someone please correct me if it is the wrong answer, but they said that Adwords has nothing really to do with your organic ranking.

Now as for your poor bounce rate on your adwords there are different theories as to why you lost ranking with Google on that. It could be that Google has some sort of Adwords vs. URL relevancy algorithm that when you targeted the Adwords in a misleading way, google thought that that was what your site was about, and then the high bounce rate confirmed that the content was not consistent with your ad and maybe brought your site down on the TrustRank. Thats a total theory but it could be possible I guess.

I have a competitor who began spending $5,000 per month on AdWords, starting 4 months ago. He has not moved from 7th place in the organic SERPs during that time, so I agree with the opinion that AdWords has no effect on SERPS.

However I do conclude that AdWords must be paying off for him to continue to spend that amount each month.

Ed

Adwords should have have no effect on your organics.

The only way that I could imagine an effect would be a bounce rates and pageview duration negatively painting a picture of your site through the keyword searches. Since Sponsored listings are supposed to be completely seperate from organics, this doesn't seem likely. But who really knows what the mighty G! does and doesn't do?? Speculation and testing can only give us ideas and clues.

I agree. I actually believe that when I asked this question originally, it was you BERG who answered it. Great Info!

We use adwords and run them on SERPs where we hold #1 and #2 organic listings (enables us to present three offers in the same SERP and with adwords we can present an offer that can not be relevant by organic optimization).

We have turned them on and off for days, weeks or months at a time. We turn them off when shipping person is out, we turn them off when on vacation, we turn them off when busy with other projects and want to divert employee time away from orders.

Organic rankings are great.

Anyone who says google dumps sites out of the organic SERPs so that they must pay for adwords has a problem with his website or a "problem" with google, or simply enjoys "conspiracy".

What?!? So Google isn't out to get me?

EGOL agrees: I think you are in trouble with that black hat.

Oh! I never even thought about the hat in that pic! Good point! I guarantee my phone is tapped.

Also think of AdWords as an opportunity for branding. If someone is shopping around, and they see your site listed in more places on the SERP, then they are more likely to feel as though your site is the "leader" in your market. So, this is pure speculation, but having multiple listings on the same SERP (paid and organic), may improve the conversion rate that you get from your clicks.

...not to mention, if it's a keyword that's working for you in organic search, then it'll probably work for you in AdWords as well, and vice versa.

I used Adwords for a while and it didn't affect my position in the main SERPs either way.

True. Plus, you're not paying for impressions. Target the longtail in Adwords and you may get millions of impressions for free. Even without clicking and converting, it helps you with branding.

BERG + LongTail = BFF

That what optimizing adwords campaigns is all about. Go after 5 or 6 long tails that bring you 30 clicks rather than one mega money phrase that brings you 10 hits.

I have never seen any evidence that adwords helps or hurts organic listings.