Despite some antecedent evidence to the contrary, Google will not give you an organic ranking boost if you run pay per click (PPC) ads. Nor will they reduce your organic rankings just to get you to turn your paid ads back on. The truth is, the organic algorithm does not consider whether or not you have paid ads running.
However, that doesn’t mean that PPC can’t impact your organic rankings.
What we already know is that sites that run PPC ads next to their organic rankings get an additional lift of about 30% or more. That’s 30% higher than what they would get from having just organic alone plus just the PPC alone. It’s running them together that gives them that boost.
However, the organic algorithm can take into account signals that the PPC can impact.
If Google is measuring organic clicks of your top ranking against the organic clicks of other sites ranking for the same thing, and your PPC ad increases your organic clicks by 30% that could be enough to push you up one or two spots in the rankings.
If your PPC ads are generating targeted visitors who are staying on your site (as opposed to hitting the back button because it the content isn’t quite what the visitor expected), that, too, can have an effect on your rankings.
So it’s not that the organic algorithm cares whether you’re running PPC ads or not, it’s just that the value your PPC ads are bringing to your site are having a positive impact on your organic rankings.[Tweet This]