Has Google Started Using AdWords / AdSense Data in Ranking Organic Results?

Thursday, October 11th, 2007 by Jeremy Luebke

Has Google Started Using AdWords / AdSense Data in Ranking Organic Results?

I would have sworn up and down that Google organic listings operated without any integration of Google AdWords or AdSense data. Every engineer I’ve see talk about the subject has said as much and even the AdWords help documents stated this was the case. That was until now.

Jeremy Mayes noticed that Google has deleted the documentation. It used to be located here. You can still see the page in Archive.org.

Quote from Archive.org Page:

Will participation in AdWords or AdSense affect my listing in Google’s free search results?

Google’s advertising programs are independent of our search results. Search results display on the left side of our results page; ads appear on the right and in the colored box at the top.

Participation in an advertising program doesn’t positively or negatively affect inclusion or ranking in the Google search results. Inclusion and ranking are free services; we don’t accept payment to expedite inclusion or improve a site’s ranking for particular keywords. To learn more about how Google ranks pages, please visit http://www.google.com/technology/index.html

So the question of the day is, why was this deleted? I seriously doubt help docs are created or deleted without going through multiple people for approval, including legal. Is Google now, or are they planning to in the future let AdWords and AdSense data influence rankings? Even if they are, I doubt anyone will ever get them to admit it.

Update: Search Engine Land confirms that this removal was accidental and will soon be reversed.

Social Media Monitoring in Just 60-Seconds. Guaranteed!

Similar Stories in: Rumors | Forward: Email This Post

Share this post

14 comments on “Has Google Started Using AdWords / AdSense Data in Ranking Organic Results?”

Andy Beal Says:

October 11th, 2007 at 4:14 pm

Interesting that similar text still exists for Google News: http://www.google.com/support/newspub/bin/answer.py?answer=68286&topic =11670

We’ll have to see what response we get from Google.
jeremy Says:

October 11th, 2007 at 4:21 pm

If you look closely at that Google news listing you’ll see:

“doesn’t positively or negatively affect inclusion or ranking in Google News or in any Google search results.”

Looks like they just blended the info (“or in any google search results”) into the news section. Weird place for it if you ask me. I bet I’ve pointed 500 people to the original page.
Ed Kohler Says:

October 11th, 2007 at 4:27 pm

What if, because of AdSense, Google stumbled across something that was really spammy and tipped off their spam police colleagues? That seems like a case where participating could effect their natural rankings.
Water Portal Says:

October 11th, 2007 at 5:33 pm

actually that would help to rank but this will bring new wave to SEO industry and there will be guys who will find a way to tweak their websites/accounts to make ‘better’ use of the system:)
ebookers, prepare your ebooks:)
Marguerite Jasmin Says:

October 11th, 2007 at 5:53 pm

There’s a lot of money to be made especially if they admit that they are doing it.
missfitsbiz » Blog Archive » Beinflusst Adsense das Ranking in Google? Says:

October 11th, 2007 at 6:39 pm

[...] interessante Frage – die auch Andy Beal stellt – lautet nun: warum wurde diese Seite gelöscht? Es ist anzunehmen, dass das Löschen eines [...]
Jeremy Luebke Says:

October 11th, 2007 at 9:03 pm

Thx for the update Andy or Jordon, was just about to do that
Seth Says:

October 11th, 2007 at 11:48 pm

http://adwords.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-not-in-free-search-results.htm l
It’s important to know that Google’s advertising programs are entirely independent of the unpaid search results. So being an AdWords advertiser (or AdSense publisher) doesn’t affect the inclusion or ranking of your site in the Google search index. Put another way, being an advertiser will neither help nor harm one’s inclusion or ranking.
Steven Bradley Says:

October 12th, 2007 at 2:42 am

Seems like this was a simple accident, though the timing is interesting with all the talk of Google’s response to paid links this week.
Bushido Says:

October 12th, 2007 at 8:20 am

@Steven:

It appears that google has been talking quite a lot on that subject lately…
Brian Gilley Says:

October 12th, 2007 at 9:46 am

I really don’t see why not. I wrote an article back in June that strongly correlates better organic rankings by manipulating Google Analytics data from referring sites:
http://www.seoposition.com/referral-scoring-edus-and-improved-rankings .html

To assume that they’re not using Adwords or Adsense data to factor into their algo. or organic SERPs would be an assumtion I wouldn’t wholly believe.

Interesting none the less. -Brian
Has Google Started Using AdWords / AdSense Data in Ranking Organic Results? « Unabridged Says:

October 14th, 2007 at 8:29 pm

[...] AdSense Data in Ranking Organic Results? 14 10 2007 It’s just something I heard on a blog, but if paid accounts are actually influencing natural search [...]
pay per click » Has Google Started Using Adwords / Adsense Data in Factoring ... Says:

October 19th, 2007 at 9:00 pm

[...] came across this post – Has Google Started Using Adwords / Adsense Data in Factoring …<… – and thought it was worth sharing. I hope you find it interesting too and take the time to read [...]
Mira Says:

February 27th, 2008 at 10:55 am

Hey!!! Can you tell me where I can find a lot of casestudies concerning Viral Marketing?

Thanks a lot!