An other WebmasterWorld thread asks Google penalizes non-payers? Basically, the thread creator has a client that decided he did not want to continue his account AdWords with Google. So to cancel, instead of calling and paying off his bill, he decided to have Google cancel the bill due to non-payment. The thread creator makes it sound like this is a common way of canceling accounts, I certainly hope not (ok back on topic).
Soon after they have lost rankings for all their keywords, outside of entering in the domain name. The speculation is that Google AdWords non-payment has triggered the organic results to change for that site. Everything we are told from Google would say that this is impossible. Google AdWords and Google Web Search results are completely independent of each other. Is this possible?
Well, forum members certainly think so. One member says, "I can see Google automating a system that throws domains into the black list when bills go unpaid after so many days. Clever." An other member said, "Not paying a bill is a pretty clear indication of black-hattery and dubious value to end users." But one member suggests to tell the client to pay the bill and then see if the organic rankings improve.
What do I think? I think that it the clients non-payment has nothing to do with his rankings drop in the organic results. I think there is something else going on.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
