How to measure engagement in 2014?
-
Cyris's article on Google making user satisfaction #1 is great! See: http://moz.com/blog/seo-satisfaction
However, what is the best practice to measure user satisfaction? We have no data as to when the user goes back to the SERPS to click a competitor or do another search! Are the metrics of bounce rate and avg time on site actually helpful or just confusing the situation? Did my visitor find what they need quickly or leave because my site sucks?
I'd like to hear how others are measuring user satisfaction in 2014...
-
No worries on the delay. It gave me time to research it all more
I believe the issue is related to slow load times on low bandwidth connections & too much processing time on older computers. This made it so people with faster machines and better ISPs liked my site while slower connection and older machine visitors hated it....that's my guess anyhow.
I'm redoing the site in bootstrap and have greatly reduced load and processing time.
I'll share the results when I have them.
-
Sorry for the late reply!
Although I don't have a clear answer in cases of conflicting signals. I suppose it depends on your end goal, and what you think satisfies the users most and makes them want to come back to your site.
Are they finding what they are looking for?
Do they want to stick around?
Do the numbers make sense?
There's no rule of thumb. Often you have to dig beyond the data and put yourself in a users shoes, and even sometimes do actual user testing.
-
Thanks Cyrus.
What do you do when you see conflicting data on metrics?
For example...
-
Higher bounce rate, higher average time on site, increased page views
-
Lower bounce rate, higher avg time on site, decreased page views
I suppose there is no rule of thumb, but I hate not having a clear path. Any thoughts?
-
-
I agree that bounce rate can be deceiving, as well as time on site and pages per visit. But they do correlate well with engagement and the ability of your site to answer questions.
Yes, a visitor can get the answer question and leave right away. Meaning a high bounce rate and low time on site. But what happens when a visitor lands on your site and gets drawn in - perhaps because you answered another question the visitor didn't even know they had?
I've seen my rankings increase shortly after a rise in time on site or a decrease in bounce rate. It's difficult to tie these imply a relationship between the two, but it works generally well enough that I'm happy to keep looking at these metrics.
-
I use clicky for the numbers... if I really want to see exactly where people are clicking and how long they were on the page before they made the click... I use crazyegg.com.
Clicky has a feature that allows you to see where clicks occur on a page but I like CE better.
-
They have a pretty good FAQ, but you want to be asking questions relevant to site satisfaction and ease of use. What's the aim of the site? Can you find this product easily using just the search box? What message is your eye drawn to first?
Those sorts of things
-Andy
-
Thanks Egol. I've appreciated your advice going years back to the SEOChat forums!
I'm a bit disappointed that you appear to be playing in the dark as much I am. I can usually make arguments/guesses for various scenarios when looking at bounce rate and avg time on site. However, I never walk away feeling confident in whether the changes are actually an improvement.
-
This is interesting, as I like the idea of surveys without bother my visitors...
Do you have some advice on what the "right" questions are in your experience?
-
I agree. Since I don't know for sure what google uses, these metrics are my personal measure of visitor satisfaction. When I make changes to my site I see how the metrics change on those pages for both people who "land" on the page and people who simply "view" the page.
-
My guess is that Google doesn't use time on site as an important metric. Is a site that answers my search query in 15 secs less valuable than one that takes 2 mins? If user satisfaction is key, I think searchers are happier with getting the answer quickly. Google has data that we don't...specifically, whether or not your site answered the search query, whether they clicked on another site after yours, or if they did a new related search. I believe that this is more important to user satisfaction for Google and our rankings.
I know our data is limited, but I'm just not sure how to make heads or tails of my engagement on a lot of my pages.
Using your example, what if bounce rate increases, but time on site does as well?
...what if bounce rate drops, but time on site does as well?
-
A little known, and highly valuable service, called Feedback Army.
I have used them on many occasions and you can set questions for live site users to complete actions on your site and give you an answer. It is the most accurate way to get live feedback from real individuals - and they come back with some startling insights.
It's so cheap, everyone should give them a go
Edit- Let me just add, this is cheap, but far from a worthless service. Amazing value for money, but do remember it is user testing, not an in-depth report. The key to this is asking the right questions.
-Andy
-
I use bounce rate, pages viewed and time-on-site as reported by Clicky.com to assess visitor engagement on my sites.
Most bounce rates simply count one-page visitors, but Clicky has a new method to measure the amount of time they remain on your site. Clicky believes that a single-page visit of 30 seconds means that the visitor has had some engagement.
http://clicky.com/blog/214/why-clickys-new-bounce-rate-is-the-best-in-the-biz
If Google is looking at people who land on your site and then bounce back to the SERPs they can use the time between clickthrough and return as a measure of engagement. This is especially important for "reference" sites where visitors might want just a definition or a batting average or some outer quick-to-get data.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Massive unexplained organic traffic drop; disappeared from Google
Hi there,
Search Behavior | | katelynroberts
Our site has experienced a huge organic traffic drop, specifically from Google. The drop occurred on Feb 19 and I've got no clue why it happened. We have not made any significant changes to the website and it doesn't look like there was an algorithm update last week. We don't have any Google penalties or indexing issues noted, and the drop isn't specific to any particular segment/region/keyword. What am I missing? Any advice or insight is super duper appreciated. Our site is a Wordpress/WooCommerice e-commerce site with a blog and long-standing #1 ranks for keywords related to our main product offering. Screen Shot 2024-02-26 at 3.12.25 PM.png
Screen Shot 2024-02-26 at 3.07.52 PM.png0 -
Strange Traffic Movements
Hi there, I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on this... I'm working with a client whose website is experiencing some odd organic traffic patterns. See screenshot attached. As you can see, there was a sudden cliff fall about a month ago, and then it recovered (almost) entirely. Then, a month to the day later, the same thing happened again. What is the likelihood that this is a data glitch vs an algorithm thing? Any light you can shed on this would be appreciated. Thanks,
Search Behavior | | mhenshall
Marc
Screenshot 2023-08-18 at 09.37.26.png image url)0 -
GA traffic locations must be wrong? Most hits from a state we don't do business in!
I launched a website earlier this year. Very limited traffic, 200-300 a month. It is an info site for a specialized business. However, when I review my GA traffic reports, 20% of our traffic comes from one city in Virginia. (although the company does business in many states, it does not in Virginia) or anything close. The bounce rate is 97%! Could it be a web scraper or some kind of redirect?
Search Behavior | | bakergraphix_yahoo.com0 -
Google Capital - Antitrust Conspiracy
I think we all have heard about Thumbtack breaking the rules w/ badges. Getting deindexed, then getting a 100M injection from Google capital and having the penalties removed: https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/20/service-marketplace-thumbtack-raises-100m-round-led-by-google-capital/ Our primary competitor is a different marketplace backed by Google Capital. Does anyone know of any low frequency products (reliant on SEO) backed Google Capital that has not won out within search? (i.e. is there any hope of competing against a low frequency marketplace after they have Google Capital backing?)
Search Behavior | | MarketGrowth0 -
Viewing search results for 'When searching in google we find our site in the first position but when some others search it is seen on the second page 1 st position why is this happening?'
Viewing search results for 'When searching in google we find our site in the first position but when some others search it is seen on the second page 1 st position why is this happening?'
Search Behavior | | Alyaauditors0 -
Google not giving ranking to the intended page of my website.
Hello friends, This is my very first question, I hope I will explain my issue correctly. I have created two pages related to SSC CGL keyword on my website: https://www.ibtindia.com/ssc-cgl-notification-exam-date 2) https://www.ibtindia.com/ssc-cgl-apply-online I want to target the keyword SSC CGL Apply Online on the 2nd URL but Google is only considering the 1st page for all the "apply" related keywords as well. Can anyone suggest to me how to get the second page in rankings for its intended keywords? I will be very thankful for this help. I tried adding image but its showing dummy. Please you can check it op GOOGLE SERP Second page
Search Behavior | | namitathakur0 -
Isn't Buzzsumo Just A Measure Of Advertising Budget?
Hello, I see Buzzsumo being widely touted as a great way of seeing what other people are writing on a niche topic to give an indication of what is performing well according to the number of social media shares. Is this a good metric considering that any proportion of the shares could be paid for or secondary to advertising? I have looked at some of the sharers and often there is no data logged, or only a few listed. I see that often the longer posts have more shares; if I had written a 7000 word post I would be more likely to push it harder on social media and spend more promoting it, I wonder if this is skewing the data also. Thanks for your opinions on this. Toby
Search Behavior | | T0BY0 -
Decline in engagement metrics, due to nav changes vs. content changes
With improvements in our rankings, we are seeing adverse changes in our measures of engagement. My gut reaction is to believe we are attracting more unqualified traffic, thus higher bounce rates, declines in pages/visit and time on site (approx 15%, 15%, 25%, respectively). While recent improvements in navigation might have contributed to these engagement declines, do you have any suggestions how best to determine whether these declines are due to nav changes vs. due to copy/content issues? There's been no change in copy content during this period. Thanks.
Search Behavior | | ahw0