Many websites run SEO and Google Ads on the same group of keywords, then look at their reports one day and no longer know which number to trust. Organic clicks fall, paid clicks rise, total visits stay almost flat, yet organic rankings do not move. Is SEO getting weaker, or are ads taking the clicks that SEO used to earn for free? No single number can answer that question, because ads and SEO act on the same results page through two different mechanisms. To judge SEO fairly while ads are running, you need to separate the two channels and measure each one with its own yardstick.
Ads do not directly change organic rankings
Google has stated clearly that ads do not directly change the organic ranking of a page. Ads do, however, change what people see and what they click. When an ad appears above the organic results, some users click the ad instead of the organic result, even though your page still holds exactly the same position. The result is that your organic ranking stays the same while organic clicks fall, and if you only look at clicks you will think SEO is weakening. This is the biggest source of confusion when the two channels run side by side: ranking is one thing, clicks are another.
Signs you are paying for clicks you would have earned free
Paying for clicks that SEO would have earned free is called cannibalization, and it often goes unnoticed because total traffic does not fall. When all three signs appear together, the ads are most likely capturing traffic that SEO had already won, rather than creating new demand. This is not always a bad outcome, because for some keywords appearing in both places raises the combined click-through rate, but you need to know which case you are in before deciding whether to keep spending or to narrow your advertising.
- Organic position is stable, but organic click-through rate keeps falling after ads start.
- Total visits stay flat even though paid clicks rise sharply.
- Paid conversions grow while total conversions across both channels do not change.
Audit the overlap between paid and organic keywords
The first step in dealing with cannibalization is to list the overlap: which keywords are both bid on in ads and already ranking organically. Start with the keywords where your page already holds position one, two, or three in organic results, because this group is the most likely to lose clicks to ads while gaining the least extra value from them. For this group, consider using negative keywords or brand exclusion lists so your ads stop bidding on exactly the queries where SEO already holds the top spot. For keywords where SEO is still on page two or has no ranking at all, ads are instead the fastest way to appear in front of users while SEO climbs.
Use the Paid & Organic report to see both channels together
Google offers a Paid & Organic report that shows when your ads and your organic results appear together on one results page, and which side users click. To see this report, you need to link your Search Console account to your Google Ads account. The report breaks down impressions and clicks by channel for each query, and shows the combined click-through rate when both appear together. This matters because it answers the core question directly: when ads appear alongside organic results, does total clicking increase, or does it simply move from one side to the other? If the combined click-through rate rises clearly, keeping the ads makes sense.
Ads can also help SEO indirectly
When ads put your brand in front of more people, searches for your brand name can increase, and that is a healthy long-term signal for SEO. Ads are also a fast place to test ideas for page titles: an ad with a high click-through rate shows that its wording appeals to users, and you can apply similar wording to your SEO titles. The question is never whether ads help or hurt SEO in absolute terms, but whether you can measure the help and the harm so you keep what works and cut what wastes money. If you want to organize organic rank tracking by keyword and by device, the articles in the Keyword.help blog from Keyword.help will help you start in the right way.
Measure incrementality with a baseline and a holdout
To find out how much extra traffic ads really bring, you need a baseline: organic impressions, clicks, and click-through rate for the six to twelve weeks before you changed your ad campaigns. A stronger method is a holdout: pause ads in one region or one keyword group, keep them running in the rest, then compare how organic clicks change between the two groups. If organic clicks in the paused group rise by exactly the amount of paid clicks lost, the ads were creating almost no new demand. If organic clicks rise by only a small part of that amount, the remainder is the genuine extra traffic that ads brought in.
Keep organic rank and ad position separate in reports
The most important rule in reporting is never to mix ad position into an organic ranking report. An organic ranking report should record rank by keyword, by device, and by country, for example tracking on google.com.vn, with depth to the top 30 and automatic daily checks when you enable them for each project. An ads report should record impressions, clicks, and spend separately. You can check the pricing page to choose a plan with enough keywords for both of these reporting needs.
Conclusion
Running Google Ads alongside SEO does not damage SEO, but it makes reading reports far harder. Ads do not change organic rankings, yet they change clicks, and without separating the two channels you can easily conclude that SEO is weakening when ads are in fact taking free clicks. Check the overlap regularly, protect keywords already in the top three with negative keywords or exclusion lists, use the Paid & Organic report to see both channels together, and measure incrementality with a baseline and a holdout. Done this way, you will know exactly how much extra traffic each advertising dollar brings, and how far your SEO is genuinely progressing.
