SEO Tip #135: Will Google Give A Higher Rank to A Website Which Runs AdSense?
Matt Cutts: Good question. The answer is Google does not, NOT, repeat not, give a higher ranking to websites which run AdSense. They are completely independent. It’s not the case that if you run AdSense you get any kind of boost in ranking or anything like that. So it’s definitely not the case that you get some boost because you run AdSense.
Your second question was, “Isn’t this Google trying to maximize its profit?” There has been a lot of times where Google has basically said yeah we could make money by selling some banner ad on our homepage but rather than annoy our users let’s try to figure out a way to get long-term loyalty from our users. The best way to do that is to protect them, help them and generate the kind of search results they are going to be happy to come for the next time around.
So there is definitely nothing in our search rankings where you will rank higher because you run AdSense. We try to take the long-term view and that would be a very short term amount of thinking to do so don’t worry about that within the search results.
About the Author
Andy Johnson has been on the Internet since the its dawn(ie his first computer program was recorded on cassette tape) and his first hard drive cost about as much his current MacBook. His first byline was in 1993 for a local newspaper rag he eventually helmed, and his last “real job” was at a computer start up which ended when it ended. Throughout it all he’s freelanced and blogged. Now he is mesmerized by Search Engine Optimization forever trying to “rise to the top” for the right reasons. He’s been married to his wife Julia for as long as he can remember and has two lovely, wonderful children. He looks forward to sharing the latest in the technical best for all the online entrepreneurs.