AdSense ads decrease Search Engine Rankings!

The amount of spam websites has been increasing exponentially from the time search engines made it simple for site owners to capitalize on PPC advertising for their SEO efforts. One of the biggest signs of a spam website is junk content with PPC ads everywhere. Apparently to preserve the integrity of searches, the search engines have introduced a negative hit to websites displaying contextual ads. Whatever the underlying reason, these aren't good days for AdSense.

Sites displaying contextual PPC advertising are consistently ranking lower than similar sites without these ads. These ads are taken from the search engines' own advertising networks -- the same sponsored ads displayed along with traditional search engine results. When visitors click on the ads, the website is given a share of the revenue.

After conducting a study of just under a million search engine results for 15,000 popular keyword phrases, some strong negative correlations stand out. In Google, Yahoo, & MSN, there is a clear SEO rankings hit for sites displaying AdSense.

For over 75% of all searches, sites with contextual advertising are more likely to rank lower in the natural result pages. For example, on one major search engine 816 sites with contextual ads were found in the top position while 1,356 sites were found in rank position 20.

If Google is distancing itself from AdSense, maybe webmasters will want to do the same. To the search engines, one warning sign of a 'spammy' website is the presence of contextual advertising. This trend is likely to continue. AdSense sites are fighting an uphill battle in the search engines.