Adsorbed gas can share a significant portion of total gas content in shale reservoirs. At the same time, the adsorption characteristics of clay‐organic complexes which commonly exist in reservoir formations differ from other lithologies. To better understand the effect of adsorption characteristics of clay‐organic complexes on shale gas storage mechanism and estimation of resources, clay‐organic complexes were extracted from original core samples obtained from shales of Niutitang (NTT) and Longmaxi (LMX) formations in the northern Guizhou region, China. Petrophysical and adsorption experiments were performed and results show that the adsorbability of the clay‐organic complexes is obviously higher than regular shales in the reservoir. Therefore, the gas contents calculated based on the adsorbability of clay‐organic complexes are higher by 30%‐70% than that based on regular shales. Combined with other measured petrophysical properties, the NTT and LMX shales display a promising potential for further exploration and development. The clay‐organic complexes may accumulate in certain areas in the reservoir, and these accumulated areas could form the “sweet spots” for shale gas development. Methodologies and results presented in this study are beneficial in more accurately understanding gas storage mechanism, estimating gas resources and identifying sweet spots in shale reservoirs.