AdWords and Search Engine Optimization

[monkeymicro]

This may be a dumb question. Will purchasing AdWord advertising help my search engine optimization. I have a new site that sells consumer electronics and computer hardware which is extremely competitive.

[digitalpoint]

No, it will not affect your natural listings...

- Shawn

[duncan pollock]

I agree. It won't affect your optimization, at least not directly. However, it does offer you two worthwile benefits if you're in a highly competitive market.
On the one hand, your AdWord will put you on the first page with a link to your site, which may well be positioned way, way down among all the others. This has to mean more visits and, it's to be hoped, more sales than you would/could otherwise expect.
On the other hand -- and perhaps the more interesting aspect -- is the learning curve involved in composing a successful AdWord. You have only a mere handful of characters with which to sell yourself to searchers. This forces you into realizing exactly who and what you are and why anyone should buy your product instead of anything else. The result cannot fail to spill over into a recognition of how to optimize your site for the same sort of maximum impact.
Duncan

[hexed]

It is widely accepted that subscribing to Adwords will not effect your SERPs rankings.

However, there have been reports that Google is favouring sites that use Google Adsense. If visitors were forced to find the links through sites that host Adsense, there is more capital to be made by Google.

I am not supporting this theory, just restating it as I heard it because I feel that the idea is an interesting one.

Hexed

[Old Welsh Guy]

Google have flatly stated that their organic and paid listings are totally separate entities, and in this matter we must beleive them. The world and its brother come out with these conspiracy theories about how using adwords boost your site, or how displaying adsense boost your rank.

Think about this for a minute. Why would google deny that adwords help your rankings, when starting a whispering campaign that adsense does?

If companies beleived that adword inclusion boosted your rankings then THAT would be a massive boost to the volume of ads that Google pulled in.

I regularly take on clients who are getting business only through overture and adwords, as their sites are either badly optimised, or are simply not spiderable. The first thing I do is look at the PPC info and target the most expensive first to bring down the clients running costs. I also attack a load of low competition phrases at the same time as these will bring in business. by doing this my costs are covered rapidly.

OK My point. as soon as we get organic rankings for these phrases we pull them from PPC. Does this have an effect on the organic rankings? NO. Did using these words as adwords stop the pages from appearing in the organic results? NO

On Google, organic and paid are not linked, the only grey area is if having adsense etc help the site get spidered. On this I have no idea :D

OWG

[expat]

There is simply no link - it would be suicidal for G if there where.

But there is an indirect effect.

This effect. mentioned on various boards and the subsequent speculation is down to the simple fact that when one has to put ones wallet where ones mouth is one tends to think twice what words to articulate and bleeding $'s helps focus.

Thus keyword targeting for Adwords is pretty sharp and this process filters back into the pages.

Finding good keyword phrases and the limited amount of space tend to encourage very short and sharp text as well as good focus.

This filters back into the page design/redesign and hey presto the pages climb up.

It's simple if it works for advertising it will work on a page.

M

[digitalpoint]

Google doesn't boost listings based on anything other than what it considers relevancy (link, etc.). That's what makes Google, Google. Google doesn't even boost it's own listings. If they did, I'm sure they would rank higher than #7 for search engine, Google News would rank #1 for news, etc.

- Shawn

[expat]

Google doesn't boost listings based on anything other than what it considers relevancy
- Shawn
As always precisely to the point - ...what it considers.... no one else does except for IT... exactly to the point - makes G what it is....

Love it or hate it IT's out there......

(sorry must be the bankholiday)
M

[Boston SEO Freelancer]

With adwords you pay for the clicks while with SEO you optimize you internal pages.

[robertpriolo]

there is no link between adwords and SEO...

This has been proven many times by big SEM agencies, just look for the case studies and whitepapers

[Old Welsh Guy]

Guys this thread is almost 4 years old :D