Google Ethics

[FiveGrand]

Does everyone here trust Google to ethically rank pages according to relivance regardless of participation in the AdWords program?

I have a website that was relatively no where in the regular search results (I was using Flash, and I hadn't yet implemented many of the known techniques for optimization). As a result I decided to begin paying per click to appear high in the "Sponsored Links".

Despite my recent efforts to optimize my PageRank remains at zero. Putting on my business cap, I began to wonder why a company like Google would ever give me to a higher PageRank when they can effectively keep me paying per click by keeping my site low in the regular search results.

Does anyone know of a reason to suspect Google is more ethical than the majority of profit focused corporations who are all about the dollars. Does anyone have any examples of sites moving up the regular results while still participating in AdWords?

[cbp]

We have had numerous threads on this one....

Participatimg in Adwords or Adsense DO NOT affect the organic rankings.

Look for other reasons for a sites ranking rather than a conspiracy theory.

What is your URL? Maybe someone here can have a look (using flash is usually a bad place to start if you want to rank well; PageRank is a function of incoming links and nothing to do with the optimization of a site - how many links do you have?).

CBP

[ADAM Web Design]

I'm going to agree with FiveGrand, but not for the reason that he might think.

Purchasing Google AdWords can, in theory, increase a site's PageRank. A site with sufficient content can gain inbound links from other websites whose webmasters clicked on the AdWords link, which in turn feeds the PageRank.

As far as Google "selling" ranking indirectly via the AdWords, I don't see Google doing this any time soon. However, the reason has absolutely nothing to do with ethics. The reasons have to do with paranoia, hysteria, and a recent revival in the overall competitiveness of search engines for market share.

There are far too many excessively paranoid people who make it a habit to search Google constantly just looking for examples of a singular correlation between SERPs and Adwords (among other things). These people would spread the word to everyone who would listen, who in turn would spread the word, and so on and so on in a virtual game of broken telephone until eventually some form of mass media picked up on the story and blew it even more out of proportion. As a result, Google takes a major buttkicking in terms of market share. Google, for all of its flaws, is not stupid enough to let that happen.

In other words, do what cbp said and lose the conspiracy theory.

[Mel]

Originally Posted by FiveGrand

...Does anyone know of a reason to suspect Google is more ethical than the majority of profit focused corporations who are all about the dollars. Does anyone have any examples of sites moving up the regular results while still participating in AdWords?

The primary reason to believe that Google does not hold down rankings in order to encourage Adwords is simply because they are a business and as soon as such a linkage was proven they would begin a terminal downward slide.

It often appears that there is a linking, because so many who use adwords do not rank highly, but the simple explanation is that you are not likely to pay for results from Adwords if you are ranked top 5 for free.

[ADAM Web Design]

Yeah, Mel said what I was trying to a lot more simply. As soon as the hysteria factor hits, it's all over for Google. Game, set, match. Baby goes to sleep.