Google using analytics data for SERPS?

[buzzman]

Hi all,

I heard a strange story yesterday, somebody told me Google uses analytics data of websites also for determining serps? For example if my site has a very high bounce rate it could hurt my positions.

Anybody know if this is true?

[elgoog]

edited...i posted in wrong thread

[robyroy]

Yes, i heard that thing too. Seems that big g use analitics datas to determine SERPS positions. I hope i am wrong

[DaftDog]

Yes, i heard that thing too. Seems that big g use analitics datas to determine SERPS positions. I hope i am wrong

I don't see this as a problem. Websites with more useful content will have a lower bounce rate than sites which do not have useful content.

Maybe webmasters can now spend more time writing and creating useful content rather than spending hours on the painful task of "artificial" link building.

[robyroy]

you are wright.
But not alwais bounce rate is low , even if we are good content.

[casinojack]

Yes is true

Bu think of traffic also...if you have 10,000 visitors a day can move you up!!

[penny-slot-machines]

This would be an obvious tactic

My guess is that they have been doing for a couple of years already - possibly the metric they are most interested in is the percentage of repeat visitors to your site for particular phrases. After that, it would be the time spent on site, bounce rate, number of pages visited etc, but all in relation to keywords used to find your site

So, if the visitors searched for "online poker", got through to your site and left immediately, never to be seen again, then google knows not to list you so highly for that keyword - you didn;t have the information they wanted...

But, at the same time, if visitors were searching for "online poker tutorials" and ended up on your site, spent a bit of time looking around, then came back a week later, google know to bump you up on the serps - you were obviously a useful site for a visitor using that key phrase

Hope that made sense, I'm typing with a nice glass of red wine...

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[TheGooner]

I bloody well hope that Google uses analytics data for SERPS. It was one of the main reasons I decided to use a Google account.

We wanted them to know ALL about our sites. We beleive that we have good timely content - and want it read!

[matted]

So, if they use bounce rate, I can send cheap paid traffic to my competitors to cause their bounce rates up?

And to get the traffic, you need the SERPs... so the rich get richer... ???

But overall, I do think people are searching for busier sites, so it is good for their users.

[baggsy]

Most of the obvious ways of Google using GA data can be spammed, so I'm not sure how much they will look into it for each individual site. For example, if I know that bounce-rate, time on site, pages-per-visitor etc were all going into the algorithm for my sites, I'd gladly pay some offshore people to 'dummy' the results.

Sometimes I even distort the data myself, accidently. I've had my site sitting open on my browser for hours on end - does this count as good stickiness? I doubt it. I still believe that links and content will be the main ranking factors for a while to come.

Where Google may use this data is in choosing the value of links on a page. If it can tell that in-content links are clicked by a user XX% more than footer links, then these may be weighted as more valuable in the overall algoritm, across all sites. I for one already believe they've been weighted more highly, but Google may use this data to tweak it's algorithm. Google may also be able to use the data to tell:

- that sites gets XX visitors per link (when aggregated) from links based in the same country where the site is hosted, but only 1% of this traffic from links based in the Indian sub-continent, for example.

- that XXX site gets visitors from YYY site who stay for zzz% longer. Will the link from YYY to XXX be given more weight?

Just a thought...

[LiveCasinoPartners]

I saw a video of Matt Cutts about six months ago addressing the same issue. At the time he was very clear that they were not presenting using Analytics results to drive the SERPS (or factor in) BUT he said that they might do it in the future. This suggests that they will certainly be doing this in the future. They could even be doing it now to some degree. I can't see how it would be too important contribution to SERP ranking becuase not everyone has an Analytics account.