Will Google penalize my rankings in the natural search results if I cancel my paid Adwords account?

• I'm thinking about trying Adwords for a few of our low ranking pages. If I don't see any results, I will cancel the account. My fear is Google might penalize my page rankings for the Adwords pages I cancel and perhaps even my other Web pages that are currently ranking well. Do you know of any instances where Google has penalized a site's current rankings after they've canceled an Adwords account?

Answer: No. We are unaware of any instances where Google has penalized a site's natural search rankings after canceling a Google Adwords paid search account. We also see no evidence that an AdWords account will help boost page rankings in the organic search results.

Not surprisingly, Google's natural search results and their AdWords Sponsored Listings are managed by entirely different departments and personnel. We have no reason to believe Google's organic search algorithm interacts at all with AdWords. Google clearly believes this is how it should be as it demonstrates a smart and fair business practice, in keeping with their stated directive—Don't be Evil.

So rest assured, your fears are unjustified. If you feel your site will benefit by participating in Google Adwords, then by all means, give it a try. It is typical and reasonable that advertisers be able to cancel accounts without expecting to suffer undue consequences. Google knows this! And they are not about to shoot themselves in the foot by retaliating for cancellations in any way.

For good measure, be sure to check out these recent SearchEngineNews.com special reports on Adwords before you set-up your accounts: