google should take BOUNCE rate into account

[jimgk]

if a site has google analytics on it - i would think that a low bounce rate should weigh heavily in google's eyes when looking at a site that may have some less than organic backlinking going on to it. i mean, these days, the number of sites that get a majority of their BLs organically must be very low. i think bounce rate is a great indicator of visitor satisfaction.

[aygabtu]

I disagree. Bounce rate is meaningless by itself. I know sites that won't give you the answer on the first page, so you have to drill down, this creating a low bounce rate. Then you come to find out that either the answer wasn't there or it wasn't good, but the site has already benefited from your extra clicking.

I think and hope google analyzes whether you continue your search or not through their search results. Basically if you got the answer you wanted, whether it took one or 10 clicks on someones site, you will stop looking. If you didn't and you continue clicking on the search results, well you must not have found what you are looking for and the sites you visited shouldn't get credit for making you click within their site.

[dp40oz]

Originally Posted by jimkelly

if a site has google analytics on it - i would think that a low bounce rate should weigh heavily in google's eyes when looking at a site that may have some less than organic backlinking going on to it. i mean, these days, the number of sites that get a majority of their BLs organically must be very low. i think bounce rate is a great indicator of visitor satisfaction.

So if you search "how to make chicken soup" and my page comes up telling you exactly how to make chicken soup. You write down the recipe and leave, I should be penalized because I have a 100% bounce rate?

Regular bounce rate statistics are useless for search rankings. Now bounce rate back to google and to another site for the same search should be a factor, but Google is the only one who knows those numbers.

[scottsdaleins]

Similar to the previous 2 posters, I don't think bounce rate is a good indicator to factor into customer satisfaction.

But while I do agree with the regular bounce rate, I don't even think the factor of "do I continue to another site to look for the answer rate" is accurate. With my browsing habits, I like to get multiple answers through opening multiple tabs (so I have a results page and just open relevant links in a new tab and browse through that). Taking the case of making chicken soup, people might (I know I would) want to look for different recipes of making chicken soup, so they are satisfied with one recipe, but continue on to look for more. That's my 2cents on this.

[aygabtu]

Originally Posted by scottsdaleins

Similar to the previous 2 posters, I don't think bounce rate is a good indicator to factor into customer satisfaction.

But while I do agree with the regular bounce rate, I don't even think the factor of "do I continue to another site to look for the answer rate" is accurate. With my browsing habits, I like to get multiple answers through opening multiple tabs (so I have a results page and just open relevant links in a new tab and browse through that). Taking the case of making chicken soup, people might (I know I would) want to look for different recipes of making chicken soup, so they are satisfied with one recipe, but continue on to look for more. That's my 2cents on this.

Definitely agree with this. There are, I'm sure, many factors google looks at. Time on site or a page would be another. If I am looking for chicken soup recipes and I am on your page for 10 seconds, but another for 2 minutes, that would be a positive vote.

I use adwords for some of my sites and google tracks what they consider to be 'conversions'. While I don't sell anything, I assume they are counting the number of people clicking on our facebook like or other social bookmarking links on our pages and those users that create accounts. While this is a small percentage compared to the people that probably like and use the site, they can take all the factors together and compare them to all the other sites with the same keywords and come up with a ranking.

Definitely not a simple or 100% perfect process, but given enough data and time, google probably gets it right most of the time.

[D Alishouse]

Originally Posted by aygabtu

Definitely not a simple or 100% perfect process, but given enough data and time, google probably gets it right most of the time.

This would make sense. Google works hard to determine the actual value of a site to the person typing in a search query.

I totally agree that bounce rate is relative to what your site has to offer. If you want the temperature or the time a movie is playing in your area, your bounce rate is going to be high but that doesn't mean customer satisfaction is low.

I imagine over time and with more and more advances, Google is quite adept at what they do. Plus, they continue to work on this and are only going to get better at it.

[dp40oz]

Originally Posted by scottsdaleins

Similar to the previous 2 posters, I don't think bounce rate is a good indicator to factor into customer satisfaction.

But while I do agree with the regular bounce rate, I don't even think the factor of "do I continue to another site to look for the answer rate" is accurate. With my browsing habits, I like to get multiple answers through opening multiple tabs (so I have a results page and just open relevant links in a new tab and browse through that). Taking the case of making chicken soup, people might (I know I would) want to look for different recipes of making chicken soup, so they are satisfied with one recipe, but continue on to look for more. That's my 2cents on this.

I totally agree. Thats why I don't know why people and so called gurus like SEOmoz keep spouting garbage that Panda takes bounce rate into account.

There is no bounce rate statistic that could really give any identification of site quality. Even time on site gets subjective. If you search 2+2 and the first site you click just gives you the number "4" then you leave, its a quick visit. If you then go to the next site and it makes you sift through useless content to find the answer, you'll be on the site longer but possibly due to not being able to find the answer you searched for. I personally am pretty certain that bounce rate, time on site ect... don't play into the algorithm at all.

[alexschmidt]

hi,
i have done a small test with bounce rates and have found that the website with less bounce rate is ranking higher than the other, this is because the website which has less bounce rate is where people are staying for longer duration which Google tracks.

Google likes to send traffic to meaning full quality websites where they would love to.

[JeanneLynn]

I'm a speed reader. I bounce around websites all day long. I'm very rarely on a site (other than a forum) for more than 30 seconds. I don't think a site owner should be punished because I read fast.

[jimgk]

thanks guys - all good points!