SeoAlchemist

PPC Discussions

noted that a long-standing

page at Google advising that buying ads is not a way to rank better for free
on Google had disappeared. Sign of a new change? No, Google says it was
accidentally removed and will be restored when new help pages are published
shortly. FYI, a similar page is still live
here.
Until the other one comes back, here’s what it said:

Will participation in AdWords or AdSense affect my listing in Google’s
free search results?

Google’s advertising programs are independent of our search results. Search
results display on the left side of our results page; ads appear on the right
and in the colored box at the top.

Participation in an advertising program doesn’t positively or negatively
affect inclusion or ranking in the Google search results. Inclusion and
ranking are free services; we don’t accept payment to expedite inclusion or
improve a site’s ranking for particular keywords. To learn more about how
Google ranks pages, please visit http://www.google.com/technology/index.html